• Question: Could you kill cancer cells by boiling or freezing them??

    Asked by stellastar to Cathal, Daphne, Darren, Jon, Katherine on 13 Mar 2012. This question was also asked by methanebubble.
    • Photo: Katherine Haxton

      Katherine Haxton answered on 13 Mar 2012:

      Really great question. Boiling or freezing will kill most cells if done well, the hard bit about using it as a cancer treatment would be just boiling or freezing the right bit of a person with cancer. Also, cancer cells might not be fixed in the body in a tumour lump, they might be travelling around in the blood. Freezing will probably be harder to get right as we can freeze cells then thaw them and they can still grow.

      Some scientists are looking at medicines that can get stuck inside a tumour and will cause it to heat up so that the cells die. I’ve not heard of anyone trying to freeze the cells.

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