New 5-Year Data Support Cryosurgery as Primary Prostate Cancer Treatment

Five-year follow-up data presented at the annual meeting of the American Urological Association (AUA) in Atlanta showed that the use of cryoablation as first-line treatment for prostate cancer can be as effective as radiation therapy. The five-center, 975-patient study demonstrated that the overall success rate across several cryosurgical techniques and risk groups was 63%, meaning patients had a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level of less than 1.0 ng/mL at 5-year follow-up. Patients with PSA measurements higher than 1.0 are considered to be at higher risk of recurrence.

John P. Long, md, director of the Urological Oncology Department at the Boston-based New England Medical Center and lead clinician for the study, said, “These 5-year data have reversed some thinking on the effectiveness of cryosurgery and actually indicate that cryosurgery as a treatment for prostate cancer can be comparable to radiation therapy.”

‘Gold Standard’ Technique

Data were also presented in a separate company-sponsored presentation at the AUA that addressed patients who underwent cryosurgery using the current “gold standard” technique of cryosurgery including temperature monitoring. This patient group showed a significantly higher overall success rate of 82% across risk profiles based on resultant PSA levels below 1.0 ng/mL.

“It is encouraging that clinical data continue to validate cryosurgery as a viable, and many times, preferable option for the treatment of prostate cancer and that these findings are being highlighted at important medical conferences such as the AUA meeting,” said Paul Mikus, president and CEO of Endocare, Inc, a leading developer of cryosurgical technologies. “These 5-year data mark the emergence of cryosurgery as a primary option for those diagnosed with prostate cancer for the first time as well those whose cancer has been treated with radiation and have suffered a recurrence of the disease.”