Benign breast lumps
Cryoablation of benign breast lumps under ultrasound guidance — no surgical incision, breast shape preserved.
OVERVIEW
Dr Marios Agathangelou performs breast cryoablation for benign lumps in Nicosia and Limassol, Cyprus — covered by GESY, €0 for GESY beneficiaries. Breast cryotherapy (cryoablation) treats benign lumps such as fibroadenomas by freezing. A thin probe is placed into the lump through a tiny skin nick, and a precisely controlled ice ball engulfs and destroys the tissue.
The frozen tissue is gradually absorbed by the body over the following months, leaving the breast’s shape intact. The procedure is performed in the clinic, under local anaesthesia, in well under an hour.
WHO IT’S FOR
- Biopsy-proven benign lumps (e.g. fibroadenoma)
- A palpable lump you would rather not live with
- Patients who want to avoid surgical excision and scarring
BENEFITS
GESY COVER
The procedure is fully covered by GESY. It is done as an inpatient admission, and that admission includes the treatment — you pay nothing for the procedure.
Separately, the outpatient visit — the initial assessment, where it is decided whether the treatment suits you — may carry a small co-payment, usually €0–10, as any specialist visit within GESY does.
The co-payment is per activity, and it stops once your total co-payments for the year reach €150 — past that you pay nothing. Some categories of beneficiary have different limits.
Both need a valid referral, from your personal doctor or from a specialist.
Outside GESY, or with private insurance? We provide the documentation your insurer asks for, and a clear cost estimate at your consultation, before you decide anything.
DIAGNOSIS FIRST
Before any treatment, the lesion must be confirmed benign on biopsy and be visible on ultrasound. Cryotherapy treats benign lesions; where there is any doubt about the diagnosis, the right answer is a different one.
DOES IT NEED TREATING?
Many fibroadenomas need nothing at all. Observation is a recognised option, as valid as treatment, and for a lesion that is not growing and does not trouble you it is often the right one. Treatment makes sense when the lesion is palpable and bothersome, when it is growing, or when it worries you enough that you want it gone.
WHEN IT IS NOT RIGHT
It is not done where the diagnosis is unclear or malignancy is suspected, where the lesion is not visible on ultrasound, and where it is larger than about 4 cm. Smaller lesions respond better. In those situations surgical excision remains the established answer.
RISKS
The risks are not about what kind of lesion it is, but about what the treatment itself does and does not achieve.
In a systematic review of six studies and 190 fibroadenomas, complications were recorded in about one case in fourteen: swelling, tenderness and changes in the appearance of the area. No major complication was reported in any of those studies.
At one year the lesion had lost nearly nine tenths of its volume. Three women in four could no longer feel it — one in four still could.
A lump you can still feel does not mean the fibroadenoma survived. In the two cases in that series that were excised after a year, histology showed necrotic tissue and no viable fibroadenoma. But something your hand finds is still there.
The evidence base is small. There is no randomised comparison of cryotherapy either against surgical excision or against simply watching. The published series together total fewer than 200 fibroadenomas, and a 2026 review could not even pool the cryotherapy data statistically, because the individual studies reported it incompletely.
"Benign on biopsy" is not a single category. Where the report says a fibroepithelial lesion that cannot be characterised further, in a series of 180 such lesions that were excised 7% turned out to be phyllodes tumours of borderline or malignant behaviour. Freezing destroys the lesion in place and leaves no specimen to check — which is why, with a report like that, the answer is surgery and not cryotherapy.
Surgical excision gives two things in one step: it takes the lesion out, and it gives a diagnosis of the whole of it. Cryotherapy destroys the lesion gradually but does not give a diagnosis of the whole of it, in exchange for there being no surgical incision. Which suits you depends on what troubles you more, and we will talk it through before you decide.
COMMON QUESTIONS
Dr Marios Agathangelou, an interventional radiologist, treats benign breast lumps such as fibroadenomas with cryoablation in Nicosia and Limassol. It is covered by GESY — €0 for GESY beneficiaries.
No. Observation is a recognised option, and for a lesion that is not growing and does not trouble you it is often the right one.
Because cryotherapy treats benign lesions. The diagnosis has to be settled before anything is treated — if there is doubt, the answer is a different one.
It shrinks substantially over the months that follow and usually stops being palpable. A small area of tissue may remain visible on imaging.
There is no surgical incision — the probe enters through a small skin nick, so what remains is a mark at the entry point rather than a surgical scar.
It is done under local anaesthesia. Most women feel cold and pressure during it, and some tenderness and swelling for a few days after.
The treated area changes appearance as it resolves, so your radiologist should be told it was treated. It is a reason to keep your follow-up imaging, not a reason to avoid treatment.
Nothing, if you are a GESY beneficiary. GESY covers the procedure in full: it is done as an inpatient admission, and that admission includes the treatment. The outpatient visit where it is decided whether the treatment suits you may carry the usual small GESY co-payment, and you need a valid referral from your personal doctor or from a specialist. Outside GESY, or with private insurance, you get a clear cost estimate at your consultation, before you decide anything.
SOURCES
Clinical statements on this page follow published systematic reviews of breast cryoablation for benign fibroadenomas, the twelve-month prospective series of office-based cryoablation, published data on the excision of fibroepithelial lesions that cannot be characterised further, and the guidance of the American Society of Breast Surgeons. They describe the treatment in general; they are not advice about your case.