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Posted on Apr 18, 2005, 8 p.m.
By Bill Freeman
Newswise
Newswise &emdash; A new nonsurgical treatment for prostate cancer preserves urinary and sexual function in a majority of men and offers an effective treatment, according to a study presented today at the Society of Interventional Radiology’s 30th Annual Scientific Meeting. The “male lumpectomy” uses focal cryoablation &emdash; freezing the tissue with extremely cold gas &emdash; to target only the tumor itself, which spares the healthy tissue in the prostate gland and associated anatomy, rather than destroying all of it as all traditional approaches do.
Prostate tumors do not tend to spread quickly, and up to 35 percent are solitary and unilateral. Thus, many of them can be treated with a local treatment, that pinpoints only the tumor, which is less likely to cause side effects. Sexual dysfunction and urinary incontinence are common complications of surgery, occurring in 75 percent and 10 percent of cases respectively, according to the published literature. Patients undergoing brachytherapy, another common treatment using implanted radioactive seed particles, have a 50 percent impotence rate in the long term. Both brachytherapy and surgery treat the whole prostate gland.
“Treating only the tumor instead of the whole prostate gland is a major and profound departure from the current thinking about prostate cancer,” said study author Gary Onik, MD, interventional radiologist, at Florida Hospital/Celebration Health, Celebration, Florida, who pioneered prostate cancer cryoablation in the early 1990s. “Focal cryoablation changes the whole picture in terms of complications, and the cancer control is as good as for any other treatment,” said Onik.
Prostate tumors do not tend to spread quickly, and up to 35 percent are solitary and unilateral. Thus, many of them can be treated with a local treatment, that pinpoints only the tumor, which is less likely to cause side effects. Sexual dysfunction and urinary incontinence are common complications of surgery, occurring in 75 percent and 10 percent of cases respectively, according to the published literature. Patients undergoing brachytherapy, another common treatment using implanted radioactive seed particles, have a 50 percent impotence rate in the long term. Both brachytherapy and surgery treat the whole prostate gland.
“Treating only the tumor instead of the whole prostate gland is a major and profound departure from the current thinking about prostate cancer,” said study author Gary Onik, MD, interventional radiologist, at Florida Hospital/Celebration Health, Celebration, Florida, who pioneered prostate cancer cryoablation in the early 1990s. “Focal cryoablation changes the whole picture in terms of complications, and the cancer control is as good as for any other treatment,” said Onik.
