Short introduction Cryosurgery is a novel technique for treatment of cancer which has been approved by the United States' Food AND Drug Administration (FDA) in 1998 and China's SFDA in 1999. Fuda Cancer Hospital-Guangzhou has used the techn
A notable exception is the pioneering work of TempleFay who in about 1939 treated patients with advanced carcinoma, glioblastoma, and Hodgkin's disease with local freezing.
The year 1959 produced several scientific results that led to the emergence of "modern" cryosurgery. Several scientists reported devices for freezing of brain tissue in 1959.
"Modern" cryosurgery began through the collaborative work of a physician, Irving Cooper, and an engineer, Arnold Lee. They built a cryosurgical probe capable of freezing brain tissue, with good control over the site where the cryogenic lesion was produced.
Many new applications of cryosurgery were introduced between the years 1961 and 1970.
Cahan and his collaborators applied cryosurgery to the uterus.
Rand and his colleagues expanded the use of cryosurgery in neurology.
Gonder and Soanes and their colleagues were the first to apply cryosurgery to the prostate.
Marcove and Miller applied cryosurgery to orthopedics. Torre and Zacarian and their colleagues made advances in skin cryosurgery.
In the decade between 1960 and 1970, Gage investigated freezing in a broad range of tissues.
Since the end of the 1970's the cryosurgical probes developed allow for precise application of cryosurgical treatment deep in the body, and cryosurgery has been as the first minimally invasive surgical technique.
In 1980's argon-helium system developed and was introduced in cancer treatment. The new cryosurgical probes could be applied at a precise location, their effect on the tissue treated by freezing was more precise. This unique ability made cryosurgery very promising and resulted in the expansion of the method and clinical experience.
In 1990's to now, cryosurgery is being evaluated in the treatment of a number of cancers, including prostate cancer, liver cancer,non-small cell lung cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer, kidney cancer, brain and spinal tumors, and certain types of precancerous conditions. Results of cryosurgical treatment are encouraging.
The mechanisms of cryosurgery
To control the outcome of cryosurgery it is important to understand the mechanisms of damage.
In cryosurgery tissue is frozen with a cryosurgical probes that is brought in good thermal contact with the undesirable tissue. Within several minutes after cooling begins, the temperature of the tissue in contact with the probe reaches the phase transition temperature and the tissue begins to freeze. As more heat is extracted the temperature of the probe continues to drop and the freezing interface begins to propagate outward from the probe into the tissue. A variable temperature distribution in both the frozen and unfrozen regions of the tissue ensues.
