Cryosurgery is an important minimally invasive surgical technique. It could be applied to any procedure in which scalpels are used to remove undesirable tissues. Currently cryosurgery is being used in many medical fields, such as dermatology, gynecology, urology, neurology, pulmonary medicine, cardiology, oncology and many others.

Cryoablation of tumors has become accepted as a novel treatment approach, offering, a therapeutic option to patients with cancer, especially unresectable or non-totally resectable lesions.

Cryoablation of tumours has typically been done using open surgery. Recently, increasing knowledge in the field of cryobiology and the use of imaging for intra-operative monitoring, has led to an increased use of minimally invasive access of cryotherapy in the treatment of non-resectable tumours. Feasibility studies have reported that tumours in the liver, lungs, kidneys, prostate, and soft tissue can been safely ablated percutaneously. During laparoscopy, cryoablation can be combined with resection of residual liver tumours.
 
I anticipate that cryosurgery will become a standard technique in the minimally invasive surgeon armamentarium in oncology.

China is one of countries that apply cryosurgery for oncology most early. The high incidence of hepatocellular cancinoma in China is most urgent to seek effective ways to manage the very dangerous tumor. Cryosurgery is just adaptable to the need. The increasing lung cancer is also promoting on cryosurgery on clinical oncology. The extensive clinical investigations of these carcinomas in China have had a great impact on the development of cryosurgical oncology worldwide.

I am very glad to share Dr Xu and Niu’s experience of cryosurgery for more than 3000 cases of tumors in Fuda Cancer Hospital Guangzhou. It is very important that their completion of cryosurgery has been mainly performed percutaneously. They offer an unusually large amount of material and thorough evaluation. Their work undoubtedly, give a good contribution to clinical cryosurgery, and should be of interest to clinicians as well as to basic science-oriented physicians and scientists.

I believe that this book edited by Dr Xu and Niu shall assist clinicians and oncologists all over the world, including the Western countries, in understanding the cryosurgical issues and encourage them to repeat these studies.

The past years are exciting ones. I hope that this book will be able to instill these excitements in the reader, even in those areas of surgical oncology in which he or she may not have a specific current interest. As the chairman of International Society of Cryosurgery, I am indebted to the book authors and contributors who have been extremely supportive in the development of the cryosurgery. It is my hope that this book will facilitate the first and encourage the second.

Read and enjoy.

Franco Lugnani MD
President of
International Society of Cryosurgery
Headquarters Casa di Cura Salus
Via Bonaparte 4
34100 Trieste
Italy

[译文]

氩氦刀冷冻治疗是微创外科的一项重要技术。目前广泛应用于皮肤科、妇科、泌尿科、神经科、肺内科、心血管科以及 肿瘤科等多项外科医学领域。适用于任何一个可使用解剖刀清除不良组织的过程中。

氩氦刀冷冻治疗已经成为一种新的肿瘤治疗方法,，为癌症患者，尤其是不能手术切除病灶或不能完全切除病灶的患者，提供了一种新的治疗选择。

氩氦刀冷冻治疗肿瘤通常在开放性手术中使用。近来，随着人们在低温生物学领域知识的增加和应用影像学进行术中监视技术的进步， 氩氦刀冷冻治疗在微创治疗中越来越多的得到应用，尤其是对不可手术切除的肿瘤。可行性研究报告指出：经皮消融治疗肝脏、肺部、肾脏、前列腺及软组织部位的肿瘤是安全的。在腹腔镜检查中，可结合使用氩氦刀冷冻治疗来切除肝肿瘤残留。

可以预期，氩氦刀冷冻治疗将成为微创治疗脊椎肿瘤的标准。中国是世界上最早采用氩氦刀冷冻治疗肿瘤的国家之一。肝癌的高发病率促使中国急需寻求有效途径治疗这种危险的肿瘤。氩氦刀冷冻治疗的出现正好满足了这个需求。肺癌病例的增加也促进了将其应用在临床治疗中。中国在癌症方面进行的大量临床调查，对全世界氩氦刀冷冻治疗的发展起了很大作用。

广州复大肿瘤医院应用氩氦刀冷冻治疗3000例余肿瘤，我很高兴能够与徐克成教授和牛立志博士等医生分享了他们的经验。这些手术大多数是经皮完成，这一点非常重要。他们提供了充实的材料和详细的评估。无庸置疑，他们的工作为氩氦刀冷冻治疗的临床应用作出了杰出贡献。临床医生，以及基础研究的科学家们，一定会对他们的工作产生兴趣。

我相信这本由徐克成教授主编的《肿瘤冷冻治疗学》的问世，能够帮助世界各地，包括西方国家在内的临床医生，尤其是肿瘤科医师，加深对冷冻治疗的认识，并鼓励他们继续进行相关研究。

过去的几年是令人振奋的。 我希望这本书能将这些振奋的消息传达给读者，即使是那些目前在肿瘤外科领域没有既得冷冻治疗利益的读者。身为国际冷冻学会的主席，我对这本书的作者以及对冷冻治疗发展作出贡献的人士表示衷心感谢；希望这本书有助于推动冷冻外科的发展并鼓励对冷冻外科发展作出贡献的人士。

乐为序。

Franco Lugnani 教授
         国际冷冻外科学会主席