MRI-guided Cryoablation Safely Freezes Tumors in the Spine

Treatment of epidural tumours located in the spinal canal can be highly challenging, due to the risk of causing irreversible damage. To address this challenge, a medical team at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Dana Farber Cancer Institute have performed a study showing that MRI-guided cryoablation is feasible for treating such epidural tumours.

Principal investigator Thomas Lee, MD demonstrates an active cryoprobe that had just been tested in water to ensure formation of a ball of ice at the tip.

Lee and his team have now performed 11 MRI-guided cryoablation procedures for spinal canal decompression, and a total of 76 MRI-guided cryoablations in the head, neck and spine. He believes that Brigham and Women’s Hospital is the only hospital in the world currently performing MRI-guided cryoablation for spinal canal decompression.

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