Cryoablation & Cancer Care
Cryoablation or cryotherapy has been widely used for the treatment of certain types of kidney cancer, prostate cancer and lung cancer.
Clinical Trial Freezes Away Breast Cancer
NBC Philadelphia’s Dawn Timmeney Interview with Dr. Ned Carp on 07/16/10
New Way to Cure Breast Cancer Without Surgery Being Studied
NBC Los Angeles’ Dr. Bruce Hensel Interview with Dr. Deanna Attai on 05/26/10
The Future of Cancer Treatment
CNBC’s Sue Herera Interview with Dr. Rache Simmons on 10/26/09
As you know it is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and we have details now about a potentially ground breaking treatment for breast cancer. I talked with Dr. Rache Simmons of the Weil Cornell Medical Center about her research.
“What we are looking at is a way to treat breast cancer differently, a way that could avoid surgical resection in the future. And what cryoablation involves is inserting a very small probe into the breast with the guidance of ultrasound, and the tip of the probe goes into the middle of the cancer and then it freezes the cancer. And So far the patients that have been involved in the trial have had 100% success as far as being able to show that indeed we did have complete ablation of the cancers.”
Even though right now it isn’t widely used because you are still in the trial process, but I would assume that it would be less costly certainly than more traditional procedures?
“Oh, there is no question it would be less costly because number one you are not going into the operating room, so there would be no anesthesiologist, there wouldn’t be an operating room fee, there are no major set ups for the procedure. It is a little minor office procedure that takes 20 minutes. And there is a potential huge benefit with the cryoablation. What we have shown in mouse models is that there is something about the cryoablation process that actually acts as an auto vaccine against your own cancer and what we think may be happening is that when the cancer freezes, it then releases cancer DNA to our blood stream, and then our immune system can recognize this cancer DNA and mount an auto vaccine so to speak against your own breast cancer.
That would be stunning would it not?
“It would be incredible. If you can do this in the office the next day, then the cancer is dead and they could be also having the benefit of this auto immune response.
What are your hopes? I mean this is a pretty stunning development especially if indeed this procedure in some way affects other cancers that are in the body. What are your hopes down deep?
“Well, I think we may be looking at a non surgical management for breast cancer. If we can find cancers that are small, which we certainly are seeing more and more cancers diagnosed today in earlier and earlier stages, and smaller and smaller sizes. And then we can insert a little probe in the office and freeze the breast cancer in 20 minutes and the patient is done. No surgery.”
It really is an amazing technique. Of course the key to successfully treating breast cancer is early detection.
An Interview: Breast Cancer Treatment Without Surgery
Fox New York's Dr. Sapna Parikh interview with Dr. Rache Simmons on 07/14/09
An Interview: Freezing Breast Tumors Without Surgery
NBC Los Angeles' Dr. Bruce Hensel interview with Dr. Deanna Attai on 05/07/09
A unique way to treat breast cancer by freezing tumors is being done in Southern California and may eliminate the need for surgery, Dr. Bruce Hensel reported.
Pam Kalmus discovered she had breast cancer from a routine mammogram: “Disbelief... that it was happening to me,” she said.
Pam decided to take charge, choosing to enter a clinical trial where her breast tumor would be destroyed by cryoblation – freezing. Dr. Deanna Attai of the Center for Breast Care in Burbank explains: “The hope is maybe in some of these women at least if not the majority of them, we can potentially avoid the step of going to the operating room,” Dr. Attai said.
The procedure is done in the doctor's office. First the area is numbed, then a tiny incision is made in the skin, and a probe is inserted into the center of the tumor: “Through the center of the probe liquid nitrogen flows, and that's what cools the lesion down. It cools it down to -160 degrees Celsius.
“I was awake so we were discussing what was going on, and you're watching it on the monitor,” Pam said.
The entire procedure takes only 20 minutes. Dr Attai says the tumor is destroyed, and eventually absorbed naturally by the body.
The doctor believes one potential advantage of the method is that the body may form antibodies to prevent the cancer from coming back.
“We do have some preliminary data to suggest, that we're not only getting rid of the tumor, but we also might be helping the woman's own immune system, better defend against the recurrence of cancer down the line,” Dr. Attai said.
For the purposes of the clinical trial, Attai confirmed the results of the cryoblation through surgery. In Pam's case, it worked, as Dr. Attai showed her MRI images: “Here's your tumor before the therapy, so you can see how it's really lighting up because of the increased blood flow, and here it is after the cryoblation, where you can see there's no blood flow in the center of the lesion.”
“As a surgeon I think this trial is amazing, because if we get to the point where we actually don't have to take women with early stage breast cancer to the operating room and we can treat them in office, in a minimally invasive way/ that's an incredible advance,” Dr. Attai said.
“This is not the choice for every woman or every breast cancer. Right now it is being studied on stage 1 breast cancer; localized and has not spread. The clinical trial is looking for participants, but remember just for the purposes of the trial, they have to confirm the results of the cryoblation through surgery. If the trial proves successful, freezing may be all some women need. If you have breast cancer ask your doctor what's best for you,” Dr. Hensel said.