. 2007, 25(0715): 67-74.
In recent years, cryogenic approaches for a targeted treatment on malignant tumor become more and more important in both clinics and biomedical engineering area. To breakthrough the bottleneck of the traditional cryosurgery, this study combines the nano technology and the cryogenic technology and proposes for the first time to develop a highly advanced therapy for a minimally invasive treatment of tumor. Progresses have been made on its mechanism, experimental demonstrations as well as development of medical equipment. Various evidences indicate that, the nano cryosurgical therapy is a new frontier worth of particular attention in the nano medicine field. Since this new technical strategy has unique merits over the traditional cryosurgery in regulating the growth direction and strength of ice ball, enabling a conformable tumor treatment, and enhancing image resolution etc., it is expected that one may achieve much better treatment efficiency than an ordinary cryosurgery. The nano cryosurgery opens new possibilities for developing highly targeted physical therapies on tumor. In this paper, following a brief review on the advance of cryosurgery, the concept of nano cryosurgery and its generalized significance in future nano medicine are illustrated. The basic feature, capability, and implementation of the nano cryosurgery are discussed. With the progresses in our laboratory as examples, strategies to develop future nano cryosurgery are proposed. Future prospect of this new therapy is presented. Some fundamental and practical issues are identified.
