On this last day of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we're highlighting Cryoablation, which uses sub-zero temperatures to freeze and destroy diseased tissue. It's an emerging, effective and minimally invasive treatment for some types of breast cancer.
Imagine. A nick of the skin, a flash of cold and less than an hour on an exam table. For thousands of women, this may be a cure for breast cancer.
Belinda Barclay-White, MD, a breast radiologist based in the Scottsdale area for more than 20 years, is offering this emerging treatment and helping to bring it into the mainstream for women with certain types of less aggressive breast cancers. She is a passionate advocate for the procedure for the appropriate patients and now heads up an independent practice exclusively dedicated to breast cancer cryoablation treatment. For more information, visit breastcancercryo.c
Cryoablation for breast cancer is showing strong promise in the landmark IRB-approved ICE3 breast cancer trial. Interim results of this trial were presented at the 2021 American Society of Breast Surgeons Annual Meeting and recently published HERE. The study found that 97.49% of patients remained cancer-free, with 49 patients achieving five-year recurrence-free survival.
Launched in 2014, the trial involves major medical facilities across the U.S. including Columbia University Medical Center and Mount Sinai Beth Israel. International and smaller U.S. studies have found similar results.
Dr. Barclay-White notes that for many women, this non-surgical treatment can be viewed as a reward for annual screenings because it is only appropriate for patients whose cancer is caught early. Cryoablation may usher in a new, non-surgical office-based treatment paradigm for less-aggressive cancers in the U.S.:
- Cryoablation can treat breast tumors in as little as 30 minutes beyond the hospital setting without general anesthesia.
- It offers much faster recovery, improved cosmetic results, greater patient comfort, less procedural risk and lower cost.
- To date, thousands of women have already experienced cryoablation's benefits globally. In Europe, it has been approved to treat breast cancer since 2010 as well as in Australia, Thailand, Singapore and a growing number of countries worldwide.
- In the U.S., cryoablation is an expanding therapy for non-cancerous breast fibroadenomas and in use for treatment of certain malignant breast tumors.
- In Japan, a similar 13-year trial involving 304 patients with cancerous tumors less than or equal to 10 mm had no five-year recurrences.
- The technique is already a well-established therapy for kidney, bone, lung and other tumors.
Today, advances in tumor profiling help pinpoint risk and cryoablation may provide the first safe, non-surgical option for low risk patients. Notably, outpatient breast cancer treatment was of particular benefit during the pandemic.
