New treatment could help breast cancer patients who aren't able to have surgery
BOSTON - A freezing treatment may help patients with breast cancer for whom surgery is not an option.
Some people with breast cancer are not candidates for surgery due to age, heart disease, high blood pressure, because they are undergoing chemotherapy for another cancer or they choose not to, but a new technique may be an option for some of these patients.
It's called cryoablation, and it involves inserting a needle-like probe into the breast to create an ice ball that surrounds the tumor and destroys tumor cells.
Researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York performed cryoablation on 60 patients with breast cancer who did not have surgery.
When combined with radiation and hormonal therapy, only 10 percent of the study subjects experienced a recurrence of their cancer after 16 months, which the scientists say is incredibly promising.