Current status of cryotherapy in prostate cancer

In recent years there has been growing inter-est in development of alternative ablative ther-apies that attempt to avoid the morbidity, side-effects and expense of conventional radical ther-apies whilst retaining cancer control and avoidingthe psychological morbidity associated with surveil-lance. Cryotherapy of the prostate was first de-scribed 45-years ago [1] and has been used clini-cally for over two decades and currently representsthe most studied and utilised ablative techniquefor prostate cancer treatment. It is considered tobe a relatively inexpensive, effective treatment forprostate cancer that can be applied in a focal orwhole gland pattern. The complications of cryother-apy have also been greatly reduced as a result oftechnical improvements. This review will assess thepotential and current status of cryotherapy in themanagement of prostate cancer.