...Cryotherapy

A newer way that prostate cancers have been recently treated is with cryotherapy. Cryotherapy means freezing of tissues. It is a treatment that is still investigational.

In this procedure an ultrasound is used to identify areas of abnormal growth in the prostate, and then a probe is placed into that area. Once the probe has been put into place, a material, most likely liquid nitrogen, is inserted and the tissues are frozen. This takes great care since once the nitrogen has stopped being applied, the iceball or freezing tissue area, can continue to grow.

Cryotherapy is usually done with a freezing and thawing technique similar to that seen in other areas of the body. The main complication with this is damage to the rectum in which a hole or a fistula develops between the prostate and the rectum and/or through the prostate and the bladder.