The safety and efficacy of bladder cryoablation in a beagle model by using a novel balloon cryoprobe

Abstract

The poor quality of initial transurethral resection (TUR) would leave residual tumor and compromise the prognosis. The common therapeutic option is to perform re-TUR, which adds burden to patients. We assumed that cryoablation could be applied as adjuvant therapy combined with TUR, thus lead to maxium tumor control. In our study, we investigated the safety and effects of focal bladder wall cryoablation in beagle model using a novel cryoablation balloon probe. Temperature was recorded throughout the freeze process in different parts of the bladder. The bladder was harvested immediately, 2 weeks or 3 months after surgery for histological evaluation. The results demonstrated cryoablation using our newly designed probe is safe and effective. Two-minute cryoablation could induce necrosis within 2-cm range in diameter to superficial muscle layer. The findings provided us reference before cryoablation could be applied in clinical practice.

Keywords: Bladder cancer; Cryoablation; Efficacy; Safety.