From BBC Health - October 22, 2005 23:03
An innovative freezing technique offers hope to patients with otherwise inoperable lung cancer.
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Doctors are using a probe that freezes tumours at temperatures of -190C to treat lung cancer in patients who otherwise could not have surgery.
Normally surgeons aim to cut out the cancer but this is not always possible, for example if the patient is frail.
Using a special probe that turns the tumour into an ice-ball, surgeons at the Harefield Hospital in Middlesex have successfully treated 16 patients.
Seven of these had the operation over a year ago and are still disease free.
Mr Omar Maiwand, the surgeon who carried out the operations, said about 2,000 lung cancer patients a year in the UK would be eligible for this treatment.
"Removal of the lung is the treatment of choice for patients with early stage lung cancer.
"However, for about 20% of these patients removing the diseased lung is not an option as it leaves them with severe breathing problems and a poor quality of life."
