Carbon dioxide-based cancer cryoablation probe for low-resource regions

First cycle
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have developed a cryoablation probe for
bad cancer, which uses carbon dioxide instead of argon, which makes it more
affordable and accessible for use in low-resource areas.

Treatments for women with bad cancer are rare in the poorest places. In fact, survival rates can be as low as 12% for bad cancer patients in countries such as The Gambia, compared to 90% in the United States. Treatments commonly used in rich countries, such as surgery or chemotherapy, are too expensive or impractical in the poorest and most remote areas, where women often have to travel long distances to find a regional hospital capable of help them.

An inexpensive solution that can be applied in local clinics in these areas is clearly needed. To address this problem, a group of undergraduate researchers has undertaken to adapt an existing cancer treatment, cryotherapy, to make it more suitable for a context of limited resources. Cryoablation does not require a sterile operating room or anesthesia, which means that it could be used in local clinics, but traditional cryoablation can be very expensive, often costing more than 10 $ 000 for a treatment. In addition, it generally requires a source of argon gas that is difficult to find in low-resource areas.

John Hopkins researchers turned to a readily available, low-cost gas to power their new cryoablation system. Carbon dioxide is widely available because it is used in non-alcoholic soft drinks and is an inexpensive way to keep frozen products around the world. "When we started the project, experts in the region told us that it was impossible to erase significant tissue volumes with carbon dioxide," said Nicholas Durr, a researcher involved in the study. project. "This state of mind may be due to both the dynamism of the field and the lack of thought about the importance of reducing the cost of this treatment."

Researchers tested their carbon dioxide-fueled cryoablation device in rats with bad tumors and found that it could kill at least 85% of tumor tissue, suggesting significant potential in bad cancer treatment in the man. Although these first results are promising, the device will still need to be optimized before it can be used clinically.

Here is a short video published by the Hopkins team:

Study in PLoS ONE: Validation of a low-cost cryoablation system based on carbon dioxide for the percutaneous ablation of tumors

Via: Johns Hopkins