00:00For many women, breast cancer diagnosis means surgery, anaesthesia and a long recovery.
00:07But for low-risk tumours, doctors are now exploring a different approach – cryoablation.
00:14This technique is used to freeze the tumour tissue and allow patients to go home the same
00:18day.
00:20Breast surgical oncologist Richard Fine from the West Cancer Centre in Germantown, Tennessee,
00:25said the method doesn't involve any breast tissue removal.
00:28Cryoablation works by placing a probe in the tumour under ultrasound guidance.
00:35The system circulates liquid nitrogen that freezes the tumour and forms an ice ball.
00:41The ice ball then kills the tissue and then the body reabsorbs the tissue over time.
00:46The cryoablation system, made by Firm IceCure Medical, is authorised for use in specific
00:52conditions.
00:53Patients 70 or older with low-risk breast tumours at 1.5 centimetres or smaller who are also
01:00being treated with adjuvant endocrine therapy.
01:03Eight-year-old Peggy Stelling is one of those patients.
01:06Dr Fine explained it to me. He said they were using it for breast cancer, colon cancer, liver
01:13cancer, kidney cancer and prostate cancer. So immediately when he told me that, I felt
01:20this calm come over me. I still remember it. It was such a blessing.
01:28IceCure said the procedure is intended to be done under local anaesthesia and often in less
01:34than an hour. It said there should be minimal scarring and a quicker recovery than traditional
01:39surgery.
01:40Even so, its use remains limited and the company is planning a larger 400-patient follow-up study
01:46to test the technology. For Stelling, the technique was a revelation, having found a tumour during
01:53a routine mammogram.
01:54Every woman should know it's very important to have those regular routine checkups. So
01:59many women have never had one and I encourage all women to have those.
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