Israeli Firm That Freezes Cancer Tumors To Launch Treatments At Haifa Hospital

The Israeli biomedical company IceCure Medical, which developed technology that turns cancerous tumors into ice balls, announced this week that it is set to begin providing treatments for eliminating benign breast tumors and cancerous kidney tumors for the time time in Israel next month.

The company said in a press statement that it will begin commercial treatments at Elisha Hospital, a private hospital in the northern Israeli city of Haifa, on patients using the ProSense system, one of its two cryoablation systems, a process that uses extreme cold to freeze and destroy diseased tissue.

The treatment involves streaming liquid nitrogen is a closed circuit and then freezing the tumor with a unique needle developed by IceCure. The company says the healthy tissue remains untouched.

IceCure said that the next stage would be for the hospital to perform treatments on patients with cancerous breast tumors.

Earlier this year, IceCure reported great success rates following clinical trials across the US. Using the IceSense3 system, IceCure said doctors performed the procedures on 146 patients affected by early-stage breast cancer, a majority (103) of whom were under monitoring for almost two years. The company reported that out of the 146 women, one saw the cancer recur.

IceCure touts the procedures as non-invasive, safe, and a viable alternative to surgery.

“The treatment lasts about 20-40 minutes in a medical clinic, without surgery, hospitalization or stitches and without changing the shape or size of the breast. Consequently after treatment the patient is able to return quickly to daily activities and follow-up of the lesion is similar to follow-up after surgical removal,” the company said in a statement.

IceCure Medical CEO Eyal Shamir said the company was “delighted with the start of commercial treatment in Israel of breast and kidney tumors, which represents acknowledgement by the medical establishment in Israel that our technology is an alternative that makes unnecessary the need for surgery and cutting open the breast.”

“Treatment in Israel joins the successful commercial treatment that has already been performed with our technology in Japan, the US, Hong Kong and Europe for various indications including breast, lung, bone, kidney and liver cancers,” he added.

Elisha Hospital Director General Dr. Shlomo Israelit said the hospital was “proud to be the first hospital leading medical progress in the field of alternative treatment to surgery for benign breast tumors and cancerous tumors in the kidneys.”

Israelit said he was heartened that IceCure “chose Elisha Hospital as the first hospital to use this technology,” welcoming IceCure’s “leadership of a revolution in the field.”

IceCure was founded in 2006 as part of an incubator hosted by the Israel Innovation Authority (then the Israel Chief Scientist Office) to find a minimally invasive alternative to treat cancer. It became a private company in 2008 before going public in 2011.

As of 2011, IceCure is a publicly traded company on the Tel Aviv stock exchange, with a market cap of almost NIS 31.5 million ($9.5 million). A majority of its shares (70 percent) are owned by Chinese investor Haixiang Lee, founder and managing partner at VI Ventures.