By Admin at 11 Nov 2016, 15:01 PM

Cryoablation, or deep freezing, may represent the wave of the future for treating certain types of breast cancer. The procedure requires no hospitalization, takes less than 30 minutes and requires no recovery time — patients walk out of treatment with only a Band-Aid to show for it.

Even better, it’s painless; patients received a topical anesthetic on their skin and feel only a cooling sensation during the treatment.

Cryoablation is already successfully used to treat fibroadenomas, which are benign breast tumors, as well as liver and kidney cancers. A recent phase 2 trial explored the success of cryoablation to treat early-stage breast cancer, with promising results.

Among patients with invasive ductal breast tumors of 2 centimeters (cm) or smaller, cryoablation successfully destroyed the cancer in 92 percent of cases. Among women with tumors smaller than 1 cm, the success rate was 100 percent.

Lead study author Dr. Rache Simmons, chief of breast surgery at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, told U.S. News & World Report, "It's a huge advance for women — I think this could be the wave of the future.”

The treatment also has another potential benefit beyond the initial cancer destruction. Once the cancer cells die, the patient’s body reabsorbs them, which may trigger the immune system to launch an anti-cancer attack.

In animal studies, cryoablation has been shown to stimulate an anti-cancer immune response, and researchers are looking into this effect in humans. According to Simmons:

“ … we have found that if we ablate the original cancer, the metastatic disease goes away in a mouse model …

What we think is happening is the cryoablation makes the cells burst and they release all that cancer DNA into the system. The body's immune system almost acts as an auto-vaccine against the cancer."

For now, cryoablation is only being used on an experimental basis among women with small hormone receptor positive and HER-2 negative tumors, although its use is expected to gradually expand.

Researchers are continuing to study the technique to be sure it’s as effective as lumpectomy (surgery) in preventing cancer recurrence.

Further, the success of the technique also depends on the practitioner’s ability to successfully guide the treatment using ultrasound imaging. "You really need to be spot on with this or you're not going to get a good result," Simmons said, which suggests choosing an experienced practitioner may yield the best outcome.

Sources:
Annals of Surgical Oncology August 2016
U.S. News & World Report October 19, 2016

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