Jon Clarke (Publisher & Editor)A SPANISH hospital has become the first in Europe to successfully remove a lung cancer using a revolutionary ‘deep-freeze’ method.
Doctors at the Santa Elena clinic in Torremolinos used a process, known as cryosurgery, to remove the growth from a 72-year-old Italian patient.
While the team has treated prostate and bone cancers with the revolutionary method, it was their first time dealing with lung cancer.
The procedure involves administering local anesthesia and lowering the cancer’s temperature to minus 192 degrees using an argon gas needle injection, rather than cutting open the patient.
After the injection, icy crystals form in the cancer area and freeze the harmful cells.
In the months following the operation, the frozen tissue thaws and is naturally absorbed by the body.
The minimally invasive technique is ideal for patients whose lungs are too weak to endure standard operations or who have other health problems that make open surgery too risky.
Just 36 hours after his procedure, the Torremolinos patient was on a plane returning home to Italy, hopefully cancer-free for years to come.
