Carbon dioxide will freeze out the tumor

Breast cancer was proposed to be treated by freezing cells with carbon dioxide

Maria Azarova, Naked Science

Scientists from Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, Maryland) reported on the development of a new reusable device that uses carbon dioxide, rather than argon, which is widely used today, kills cancer cells.

Drawings from the article in Plos One – VM.

The study is published in the journal Plos One (Surtees et al., Validation of a low-cost, carbon dioxide-based cryoablation system for percutaneous tumor ablation).

Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer among women today. Among other things, the main problem is that, for example, 90 percent of patients in the United States manage to cope with the disease, while in less developed countries, such as Saudi Arabia, Uganda and the Gambia, the picture is completely different: the survival rate there is 64, 46 and 12 percent, respectively.

For residents of these states, the diagnosis of "cancer" automatically means an early death, since there are no adequate and affordable treatment methods, and surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy are too expensive.

"Innovations in cancer treatment do not always mean that you need to create a completely new type of treatment, sometimes you need to take radical steps in proven methods and modernize them so that they are accessible to most people in the world," explains Bailey Certes, a graduate of Johns Hopkins University and one of the authors of the study.

According to scientists, freezing treatment, or cryoblation, is easier than surgery to remove tumors, does not provoke subsequent complications and does not require a long recovery.

However, the procedure for freezing cancer cells using argon in the United States will cost 10 thousand dollars. At the same time, argon is not available to residents of poor countries, which cannot be said about carbon dioxide. It was its use that the specialists of Johns Hopkins University aimed at.

Scientists specify that they have already conducted a series of successful tests. In the first experiment, experts used cans of gel to simulate the breast: during the study, scientists confirmed that the device they created affects cancer cells at a temperature of minus 40 degrees. As a result, the tumor tissues died, and ice balls formed in their place.

In the second case, the tests were carried out on nine rats with cancer. As a result, the device successfully killed 85 percent of tumor tissues.

Finally, the scientists conducted an experiment on pig liver, which has the same temperature as human mammary glands. This test was also considered successful: the device maintained the necessary sub-zero temperature in the cells throughout the test.

According to scientists, all this suggests that the results are promising. However, before starting to treat people, experts intend to conduct several more experiments to ensure that the device will be able to cope with the destruction of the tumor at temperatures characteristic of human mammary glands.

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