Tissue-Freezing Technique Effective Against Prostate Cancer

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 isnota 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.

SOURCES: Ralph Miller, M.D., director, prostate center, Allegheny General Hospital, Pittsburgh; Anthony D'Amico, M.D., Ph.D., chief, radiation oncology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston; Nelson Neal Stone, M.D., clinical professor, urology and radiation oncology, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York City; March 2008Urology