The technique, which does not require general anesthetic and can be completed in about 15 minutes, could provide an alternative to surgery, which often requires women to stay in hospital for up to a week and can leave them with scars.
The needle is cooled to -274F (-170C) by pumping liquid nitrogen through a network of tiny tubes, allowing the surgeon to control the size of ice ball produced to ensure it freezes the entire tumor.
Scientists behind the device say it is possible to treat tumors up to the size of a golf ball. It has already been used on benign tumors and doctors have now begun a trial of the procedure in 30 breast cancer patients.
Freezing instead of boiling
“The cells in the human body are made mainly of water, which means they freeze,” said Hezi Himmelfarb, the chief executive of IceCure Medical, the Israel-based company that has developed the system.
“There have been attempts before to use heat to destroy cancer cells like this but that can be extremely painful because our bodies are very sensitive to heat.
“Cold has an anesthetizing effect, so the patients feel very little pain during or after the procedure. We have developed the system so it can be carried out in a normal doctors’ surgery as it is minimally invasive and relatively quick.”
The procedure, known as cryoablation, controls the size of the ice ball produced to ensure that the tumor can be destroyed without damaging healthy tissue.
“There is very little scarring as it is only the needle that is inserted and the tumour does not need to be removed,” added Mr Himmelfarb.
The device has already been approved for use in the United States and IceCure is hoping to get European approval in the next year.
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