AS India witnesses a steady rise in cancer cases, with projections indicating a sharp increase in lung, breast, prostate and gastrointestinal cancers in the coming decade, health experts say that minimally invasive organ-preserving approaches such as cryoablation could significantly improve quality of life.
“One of the advantages of the technique is it can control recurrent or metastatic soft tissue sarcomas with 86% one-year progression-free survival and low 2% complication rates. It also reduces morbidity versus surgery, enables outpatient care, preserves organ function and synergises with immunotherapy by boosting anti-tumour immunity,” Dr Ray said.
For the country, where late diagnosis remains common, cryoablation could be particularly useful in managing small, early-stage tumours. Dr Sachin Sekhar Biswal, medical oncologist at Manipal Hospitals, said although cryoablation as a precision approach is not new, MRI-guided cryoablation with high resolution imaging has taken a giant leap.
“MRI targeting in real time ensures high accuracy. Early stage tumours where radical surgery is considered, can be approached with cryoablation and with good functional recovery and without having to sacrifice the organ and physiological function,” he said.
Surgical oncologists cautioned that the technique is suitable only in highly selective situations and cannot be projected as a universal alternative to conventional cancer therapies. Although the technology has been in use across different cancer types, its application depends heavily on tumour size, spread, biology and the overall condition of the patient.
Dr Saroj Kumar Das Majumdar, professor of oncology at AIIMS-Bhubaneswar, said careful patient selection is essential. “While promising, cryoablation is not suitable for all cancers. Large, widely spread or deeply complex and bulky tumours, where complete and uniform freezing of the entire mass is difficult to achieve, may still require surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation. The technique is also inappropriate in extensive node-positive disease, where significant lymph node involvement typically requires systemic treatment such as targeted therapy or immunotherapy,” he added.