Cryosurgery in prostatic cancer: Survival

Quality-of-life outcomes for men treated with cryosurgery for localized prostate carcinoma

“…It therefore offers an alternative form of treatment that may be amenable to less well patients in later disease stages, such as Stages C and D (American Urologic System), and to patients who may otherwise not be considered candidates for prostatectomy. 9,13,14 An additional benefit of cryosurgery is that further treatment options are not limited after failure. 15 In terms of survival, it was found that survival rates were comparable to those from the other two treatment modalities.…”

“…Originally introduced as an alternative to either radiotherapy or radical prostatec-tomy in the mid 1960s, 7 it was found to meet the primary objectives of controlling the local lesion. 8,9 Recent reports have highlighted a number of possible benefits of cryosurgery. These include the relative rapidity of the treatment, with most men being discharged the day after treatment; its bloodlessness; and its use in certain cases under local anesthesia.…”

Image-Guided Prostate Cryosurgery: State of the Art

“…Subsequently, an open transperineal cryosurgery procedure was developed in which the freezing was carried out on the surface of the prostate with visual monitoring. Using this same approach, Bonney et al 6 reported results of this procedure in 229 patients followed for up to 10 years. A comparison of these patients with those who underwent RP, radiation therapy, and other procedures showed equal survival among the treatment modalities.…”

Management of radiation failure for localized prostate cancer

“…Although early series using open perineal cryoablation of the prostate in humans revealed comparable survival rates with radical prostatectomy, 67 it was fraught with unacceptable complications of urethrorectal and urethrocutaneous ®stula, bladder neck obstruction, stress incontinence and prolonged tissue sloughing with resultant urinary obstruction. Cryotherapy, was therefore, abandoned not because of ineffective tumor destruction but due to its unacceptably high complication rate.…”