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Cryoablation
continues to show good results for Kidney
Cancer patients
Newswise — A review of 62
Mayo Clinic patients who underwent cryoablation to treat cancerous kidney
tumors shows that the patients are cancer
free for up to two and a half years after
having had the procedure.
Also called cryotherapy or
cryosurgery, cryoablation is a procedure in
which extreme cold is applied to the tumor
using a cryoprobe, a hollow needle-like
device filled with argon gas. The gas
rapidly freezes the targeted tumor.
As this study and others
continue to show, cryoablation appears to be
an effective treatment for cancerous kidney
tumors. But researchers caution that at this
time, it be used only for patients who are
not candidates for surgery, because
follow-up studies are needed before the
procedure can be widely applied, states
Thomas Atwell, M.D., a Mayo Clinic
radiologist and the study's primary
investigator.
“This procedure appears to
be a good option for some patients,” he
says. The general criteria for cryoablation
includes the size and appearance of the
tumor and the number of lesions in the
kidney.
In this study, 89 of 91
tumors were effectively treated in a single
treatment session. Patients had tumors that
ranged in size from 1.5 centimeters (cm) to
7.3 cm. The average size was 3.4 cm.
Follow-up evaluations ranging from three
months to two and a half years were
available for 62 patients -- all whom remain
cancer free at last report.
The standard treatment for
kidney tumors is surgery, which is highly
effective.
For patients who undergo
surgery, the hospital stay and recovery
period are longer as compared to patients
treated with cryoablation. Patients who
undergo cryoablation will have small ¼ inch
incision where the cryoprobe is inserted.
The mark is covered with a bandage and
recovery usually amounts to one day in
hospital, as compared to several days for
patients who undergo surgery.
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