Cryotherapy is a treatment that uses a special probe to freeze, and destroy, tumour tissue.

Cryotherapy can only deal with very small amounts of tumour, so it is not an alternative to more usual treatments such as surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy.

The main use of cryotherapy in the treatment of lung cancer has been in the rare situation when tumour tissue has grown into the main airway leading into the lungs, the trachea, causing narrowing of the trachea, which leads to breathlessness. When this happens a special kind of telescope, called a bronchoscope, can be passed through the mouth and throat into the trachea. The cryotherapy probe is then threaded through the bronchoscope and used to shrink the tumour and ease the obstruction it was causing.

Cryotherapy is still a relatively new treatment for lung cancer and is not widely available in the UK. Radiotherapy, or the insertion of a special tube called a stent, are more common ways of relieving any narrowing of the trachea due to lung cancer.