Cancer cryosurgery at Fuda Cancer Hospital, Guangzhou, China

At Fuda Cancer Hospital in China, cryosurgical ablation, also known as cryosurgery or cryo-ablation, is probably the most promising treatment among many ablation procedures in clinical use.

Tumors are destroyed by freezing the tumor tissue with extremely low temperature. As soon as the temperature of the needle tip drops below -40 ° C, ice crystals form inside the tumor tissue, resulting in the death of the tumor cell.

During cryosurgery, a progressive failure of microcirculation occurs: the formation of the porous walls of the vessels of the destruction of the endothelial layer, interstitial edema, platelet aggregation, the formation of microtubules and, ultimately, stagnation and obliteration of the vessels.

It has been suggested that patients' immune systems may be reactivated during cryosurgery. Residual tumor tissue not subjected to cryosurgery and metastasis can be destroyed by the immune system after cryosurgery. This response has been called the “cryoimmunological response”.

Cryosurgery procedure

Cryosurgery is performed via intraoperative, endoscopic or percutaneous routes, depending on the location and size of the tumor.

During the procedure, cryoprobes 24 mm in diameter are inserted into the tumor, either in an open incision or under the guidance of imaging tools. Two to three cycles of freezing and thawing are performed using a freezing and heating system of argon-helium. Covering the 5-10 mm edge of normal tissue, an ice ball formed at the tip of the cryoprobe is large enough to remove the entire tumor. For large tumors larger than 5 cm, several cryoprobes are used or several sessions are performed to solve this problem.

Unlike open surgery, cryosurgery is minimally invasive, which allows treatment as many times as necessary.

Benefits of Cryosurgery

Cryosurgery is a localized medical procedure that can work on its own or combined with other traditional methods of treatment, such as surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy to treat complex cases.

Combined with removal, it minimizes the risk of cancer cells spreading during removal. In cases where the tumor does not completely collapse after freezing, especially when the procedure is performed percutaneously, cryosurgery still minimizes operative blood loss and postoperative discomfort.

There are no serious side effects that are commonly seen with chemotherapy or radiation therapy. Cryosurgery is applicable for a tumor near a large vessel that cannot be removed by surgery.

Although cryosurgery is aimed at destroying neoplasms resistant to traditional methods of treatment, it also causes an immunological reaction (cryoimmunological reaction), which helps fight residual or metastatic tumors. There is evidence that the recurrence rate of cancer after treatment with cryosurgery is lower than that of cancer that was treated only by surgery.

Price

The cost of cryotherapy is $ 5900.

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