Cancer is one of the leading causes of death in humans. Since many years ago until now, many treatment methods are discovered and developed, but none of them can be a general treatment method that can be done for all types of cancer. However, research continues to be done and in recent years some very revolutionary methods have emerged, and these methods are able to extend the life expectancy for patients with cancer. One of the revolutionary methods is Cryosurgery. Cryosurgery is a method of cancer that is based on a freezing effect. The rationale is how a freezing will kill the cells. Historically, this therapy gets base of an ancient therapy that has existed since thousands of years ago. The ancient therapy is a therapy used to treat infections of the feet with ice. In the modern era, the therapy is carried out by injecting a clotting agent through a metal structure called a probe in cancer tissue.
Continued in 1975, for the first time, this therapy was used to treat cancer patients. In 1975, the Mayo Clinic in the United States did this therapy using nitrogen gas as clotting agents and rigid probe as distributors. At that time, the temperature of the rigid probe that was used is set up to -160 degrees Celsius. The therapy was performed on 28 patients with benign tumors and malignant cancers. A few years later, Cryosurgery was used in Europe in 1977, 1981 and 1983 by some cancer specialists. In 1985, it was found rigid probe with very small caliber, and this is a revolution in Cryosurgery, because now this therapy can be performed in the human body that are difficult to reach with a regular probe. This therapy gets strong legitimacy, when in 1998, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stated that the therapy is safe to do so, and a year later similar agencies of China said similar things. Currently, most of these therapies using argon gas as clotting agent and helium gas as a destruction agent.
Talking about cancer therapy, of course each therapy has a different way of working process. In Cryosurgery treatment, the way is to insert argon gas into cancer tissue through a needle with a very small caliber. Once the gas is released, and then the cancerous tissue will freeze quickly until it reaches a temperature of -120 degrees to -180 degrees and form a structure like a ball of ice. In this condition, cancerous tissue will be deprived of blood and oxygen so that it will freeze to death. This process does not stop here, because the next step is fired helium gas to cancer tissue that had been frozen. When the helium gas fired, then frozen tissue temperature will rise to 40 degrees and will be melted and destroyed. The time required freezing or raise is crucial, and is determined automatically with very high accuracy. Cryosurgery therapy is done with CT or ultrasound guided to ensure accuracy in shooting gas. Gas firing should be done properly so that all cancerous tissue can be frozen without exception. This therapy is usually done as much as 2 to 3 times in a cancer tissue.
Currently, Cryosurgery is the most recommended therapy for treating patients with lung cancer. As known, lung cancer is one type of cancer is very difficult to handle by using surgical techniques. With the use of this therapy, technical barriers in reaching the cancerous tissue can be overcome. The advantage of this therapy is a high success rate and low complication because this therapy is running locally, unlike chemotherapy which also affects healthy tissue that can cause complications. Another advantage is that this therapy is very applicable because it can be used in 90% of cancers. Not only that, this therapy can control and strengthen the cancer antigen that can fight the re-emergence of cancer cells after surgery.
Mike Morgan is a health enthusiast and has written several health articles for various health magazines.
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