Tissue-Freezing Technique Effective Against Prostate Cancer

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More than 60,000 prostate surgeries are performed in the U.S. each year and some 50,000 men receive implanted radiation. About 30,000 men will also undergo external radiation for prostate cancer, according to Dr. Nelson Neal Stone, a clinical professor of urology and radiation oncology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City.

Men trying to decide which treatment is best for them may now also want to consider cryotherapy, knowing that the results will be similar to other choices, Miller said. Patients can turn to cryotherapy after failing radiation therapy, he noted.

Cryotherapy may also be a good option for patients who are likely to fail radiation therapy or for those who have a prostate obstruction that causes them trouble urinating, he added.

In addition, patients with advanced prostate cancer may also benefit from cryotherapy in lieu of radiation, Miller said. "For some patients it's a good first choice," he said.

According to Miller, cryotherapy is offered at a number of hospitals around the country but it is not as common as radiation and surgery.

Risks associated with cryotherapy are the same as those of other prostate cancer treatments and include incontinence, impotence and not being cured, Miller said.

One expert was more skeptical, however.

"While it's very good that this study has long follow-up and the results look reasonable, there is no way to know how the results really compare to any standard treatment like surgery or radiation therapy -- this is not a randomized trial," noted Dr. Anthony D'Amico, the chief of radiation oncology at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

In a randomized trial, patients are randomly sent to receive one treatment or another, and the outcomes are then directly compared. The only way you can really tell if cryotherapy is as good as more conventional treatments is in this type of head-to-head comparison, D'Amico said.

"I don't want people to say that cryotherapy is equivalent to surgery or radiation and should be used as primary treatment for men with localized prostate cancer," he said. "Before one would adopt this treatment you really need a randomized trial because I would have to be convinced that it was as good as surgery or radiation for me to want to adopt it -- I think it's still experimental."

More information

For more information on prostate cancer, visit the U.S. National Cancer Institute.