LOS ANGELES -- Surgeons at Century City Hospital here have for the first time used cryosurgery to treat pancreatic tumors, a painful, intractable form of cancer that is almost universally fatal.
The innovative technique of killing tumor cells by freezing them to minus 300 degrees Fahrenheit is increasingly used for liver and prostate cancers but had not been applied to the pancreas because of technical difficulties in the surgery.
Dr. Kenneth P. Ramming and his colleagues at the John Wayne Cancer Institute spent two years working on dogs and cadavers to develop surgical techniques that can be used on the pancreas, and the cryosurgery offers a first hope for prolonging the lives of these victims.
Cancer of the pancreas strikes 27,000 Americans each year, killing 25,900. Only 3 percent of patients now survive 5 years.
Dr. Ramming's second patient, operated on Tuesday, was Erwin Muskatt, a 58-year-old businessman from New York city. Mr. Muskatt was moved out of the intensive care unit Saturday and hopes to be released from the hospital next Saturday.
In a conversation yesterday, Mr. Muskatt was optimistic about his prospects, but discounted his pioneering role. "Being a pioneer doesn't matter," he said. "Being alive is good."
The first patient was a 65-year-old Santa Barbara, Calif., housewife who underwent the procedure late last month. She required subsequent surgery to halt gastrointestinal bleeding that was not directly related to the cryosurgery, but is now doing well, Dr. Ramming said.
The idea of freezing tumors to kill them has been around for half a century, but it has only been within the past few years that technology has become available to implement surgeons' visions.
Liquid nitrogen is pumped through thin probes into a tumor within minutes. When liquid inside the cells freezes, sharp ice crystals form, rupturing cellular membranes and completely disrupting metabolic processes. When the tumor thaws out, Dr. Ramming said, it is a "gray mush" that is generally reabsorbed by the body.
"There's no question that cryosurgery kills cancer," Dr. Ramming said. "The only limiting factor is our creativity in applying it."