New Procedure Offers Cool Alternative for Kidney Tumors
In the past, the more than 38,000 people diagnosed with kidney cancer each year typically faced surgery to remove a tumor, involving a large incision and the need to remove part, if not all, of the kidney. Now, however, a new procedure shows promise as being equally effective and less invasive than surgery at treating these tumors.
Cryoablation requires inserting a thin probe through the skin and into the tumor. The probe delivers a gas to the tumor, creating an ice ball around it and, ultimately, destroying it.
“When we feel confident that the ice ball has encompassed the tumor properly, we know that we’ve been successful in treating that tumor,” said ACR member Thomas D. Atwell, M.D., a radiologist with the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., said in a recent Newswire article. According to the article, 95% of patients treated with cryoablation had their tumors completely destroyed. The procedure is being studied as a possible treatment for liver, lung, bone, and breast tumors as well.
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