The verdict is not yet in on the long-term outcome of cryosurgery as a second-line therapy for treating men with prostate cancer who are not helped by radiation therapy, according to a new technology assessment by the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR).
Salvage cryosurgery may help prevent or delay death from prostate cancer in some patients in whom radiation therapy is unsuccessful. The AHCPR's technology assessment found that in the short term, some patients have negative prostate biopsies and low or undetectable serum PSA levels after cryosurgery.
But postoperative complications (incontinence, impotence, and obstructive urinary symptoms) are significant, and not enough is known about long-term effects of the procedure. Prospective trials would help determine the long-term survival benefits and make it possible to compare survival rates of patients undergoing cryosurgery vs those of untreated biopsy-positive patients, said AHCPR's administrator, John M. Eisenberg, MD.
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