An in vivo study of antifreeze protein adjuvant cryosurgery

Cryosurgery employs freezing to destroy undesirable tissue. However, under certain thermal conditions. frozen tissues survive. The survival of frozen undesirable tissue may lead to complications, such as recurrence of cancer. In a study of nude mice with subcutaneous metastatic prostate tumors, we s howed that the preoperative injection of a phosphate-buffered saline soluti on with 10 mg/ml antifreeze protein of type I into the tumor prior to freez ing enhances destruction under thermal conditions which normally yield cell survival. This suggests that the adjunctive use of antifreeze proteins in cryosurgery may reduce the complications from undesirable tissues that surv ive freezing. (C) 1999 Academic Press.