Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 11, 2025
05:19
A New Technique for Treating Low-risk Prostate Cancer—Super Active Surveillance
Published on: November 7, 2025
477
Image-guided Cryotherapy for Musculoskeletal Tumors
Rossella Scandiffio1, Elena Bozzi1, Mohamed Ezeldin2
1Division of Interventional Radiology, Cisanello University Hospital, Pisa, Italy.
Current Medical Imaging
|August 27, 2020
Summary
Image-guided cryotherapy offers a safe and effective treatment for musculoskeletal tumors. This minimally invasive technique is a primary option for benign tumors and a valuable alternative for managing painful bone metastases when other therapies fail.
Area of Science:
- Musculoskeletal Oncology
- Interventional Radiology
- Oncology
Background:
- Cryotherapy utilizes direct and indirect mechanisms to induce cell death in cancer cells.
- This review synthesizes current knowledge and clinical experience regarding image-guided cryotherapy for musculoskeletal tumors.
- It aims to provide clear indications for its application in musculoskeletal oncology.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review the application of image-guided cryotherapy in treating musculoskeletal tumors.
- To establish guidelines for the use of cryotherapy in musculoskeletal oncology.
- To evaluate its efficacy in both benign and malignant conditions.
Main Methods:
- Review of existing literature and clinical case series.
- Analysis of image-guided percutaneous cryotherapy techniques.
- Synthesis of data on treatment outcomes for various musculoskeletal tumors.
Main Results:
- Image-guided cryotherapy is a widely accepted treatment for musculoskeletal tumors.
- It is effective for palliative care of bone metastases, alleviating pain and aiding local disease control.
- Cryotherapy is also used for curative treatment of benign bone tumors like osteoid osteoma and osteoblastoma, and increasingly for soft tissue tumors.
Conclusions:
- Percutaneous cryotherapy is a safe and effective modality for benign and malignant musculoskeletal tumors.
- It is a first-line treatment for benign lesions (e.g., osteoid osteoma) and an alternative to radiofrequency ablation.
- For painful bone metastases, cryotherapy is considered when standard treatments are ineffective or cannot be repeated.
