Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine
Volume 4, Issue 1 , Pages 79-87, March 2008

Nanocryosurgery and its mechanisms for enhancing freezing efficiency of tumor tissues

  • Jing-Fu Yan, PhD (C)

      Affiliations

    • Cryogenics Laboratory, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
    • ,
  • Jing Liu, PhD, BS, BE

      Affiliations

    • Cryogenics Laboratory, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
    • Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Medicine, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author: Cryogenics Laboratory, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100080, China.

Received 11 March 2007; accepted 13 November 2007. published online 03 January 2008.

Abstract 

We proposed for the first time a surgical term, the nanocryosurgery, for efficient tumor treatment through combining the theories of cyrosurgery and nanotechnology. Simulations were performed on the combined phase change bioheat transfer problems in a single cell level and its surrounding tissues, to explicate the difference of transient temperature response between conventional cyrosugery and nanocyrosurgery. According to theoretical interpretation and existing experimental measurements, intentional loading of nanoparticles with high thermal conductivity into the target tissues can lower the final temperature significantly, increase the maximum freezing rate, and enlarge the ice volume obtained in the absence of nanoparticles. In addition, introduction of nanoparticle-enhanced freezing could also make conventional cyrosurgery more flexible in many aspects such as artificially interfering in the size, shape, image and direction of iceball formation. The concepts of nanocyrosurgery may offer new opportunities for future tumor treatment.

Key words: Nanocryosurgery, Bioheat transfer, Cryoinjury, Ice nucleation, Tumor treatment

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 No conflict of interest was reported by the authors of this paper.

 This research is partially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grants 50575219 and 50325622.

PII: S1549-9634(07)00247-X

doi:10.1016/j.nano.2007.11.002

Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine
Volume 4, Issue 1 , Pages 79-87, March 2008

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