Cryotherapy
Cryotherapy (also called cryosurgery) is the use of extreme cold produced by liquid nitrogen (or argon gas) to destroy abnormal tissue by freezing it. As an alternative to surgery or radiation, cryotherapy is minimally-invasive surgery that is typically performed as outpatient care. For internal tumors, liquid nitrogen or argon gas is circulated through a hollow instrument called a cryoprobe, which is placed into the prostate, through an incision between the scrotum and anus.
The doctor uses ultrasound or MRI to guide the cryoprobe and monitor the freezing of the cells, thus limiting damage to nearby healthy tissue. A ball of ice crystals forms around the probe, freezing nearby cells. Sometimes more than one probe is used to deliver the liquid nitrogen to various parts of the tumor. The freeze-thaw cycle is repeated once or twice. It then takes the body about nine months to a year to shed the dead cells resulting from this therapy.
Cryosurgery is used to treat men who have early-stage prostate cancer that is confined to the prostate gland. Because it’s effective only in small areas, cryosurgery is not used to treat prostate cancer that has spread outside the gland to other parts of the body.
Some advantages of cryosurgery are that the procedure can be repeated, and it can be used to treat men who cannot have surgery or radiation therapy because of their age or other medical problems. This procedure takes about two to three hours and the recovery period is typically two to four weeks
Downsides to this surgery include a loss of sexual function, since the nerves affecting sexual functioning may “freeze” as well. According to the Mayo Clinic, this form of treatment almost always results in long-term erectile dysfunction. The National Cancer Institute notes that other side effects may include urinary problems and in some cases, injury to the rectum.
Cryotherapy is less well established than standard surgery (prostatectomy) and various types of radiation therapy. A major disadvantage of cryotherapy is that long-term effectiveness outcomes are not known.
