AUSTIN, Texas — Dr. Vineet Choudhry is one of few doctors in the country performing Cryoablation, as a breast cancer treatment. It’s an alternative to surgery and patients from across the state and country are heading to Austin to have it done. 

What You Need To Know

  • Cryoablation uses sub-zero temperatures to freeze and destroy diseased tissue

  • It is a less invasive alternative to surgery

  • A study found that 97.49% of patients remained cancer-free, with 49 patients achieving five-year recurrence-free survival

“We're freezing and killing the tumor with liquid nitrogen,” Choudhry said. 

According to Breastsurgeons.org, Cryoablation, which uses sub-zero temperatures to freeze and destroy diseased tissue, is an emerging treatment for breast tumors, including some types of breast cancer. 

Cryoablation is IRB-approved. It’s currently in clinical trials and waiting for full approval by the Food and Drug Administration.   

So far Dr. Choudhry says he’s performed the treatment around 10 times for cancerous tumors, and all but one of the procedures is considered a success. 

“Really early stage or very small tumors, we can consider doing cryoablation as a standalone therapy,” Dr. Choudhry said. 

Cryoablation takes the place of surgery, as a less invasive alternative. 

“I think if more women knew about this treatment option, I think more women would be interested in having it done,” Dr. Choudhry said. 

One of his patients found out she had breast cancer this spring, and immediately sought different treatment options. 

“It was a lot of prayer,” Christie Cox, a patient of Dr. Choudhry, said. “Praying for direction, praying for the right road to go down.”

Cox came across cryoablation while searching on Facebook. 

“A lot of googling and just searching online, researching and trying to find more about Cryoablation and more about that procedure in terms of breast cancer and then finding a doctor in my area,” Cox said. “I heard of Dr. Holmes, who was in California. I didn't feel like that was going to be an option. My heart was to find somebody closer and I was very blessed to find Dr. Choudhry.” 

Her first treatment came in the fall of 2021. 

“We should definitely see it get smaller and smaller each time that we do this,” Dr. Choudhry said at Cox’s post operation appointment. “I hope you know that as we bring light to this procedure, it can eventually get, you know, FDA approval and become more of a mainstream treatment.”

Interim results of this trial were presented at the American Society of Breast Surgeons meeting and recently published in Annals of Surgical Oncology. The study found that 97.49% of patients remained cancer-free, with 49 patients achieving five-year recurrence-free survival.

An earlier version of this story misspelled Dr. Vineet Choudhry's name. This has been corrected on all platforms.