Cryoablation effective, safe, durable treatment for prostate cancer

Endocare today announced that 10-year follow-up data from a retrospective study demonstrated that cryoablation as a treatment for prostate cancer has a biochemical disease free survival rate of 77 percent. The data from the 10-year study was presented at the 69th Annual Meeting of the South East Section of the American Urological Association (AUA) in Charleston, SC on March 3, 2005.

A patient was considered to be biochemically disease free if their PSA (Prostate-Specific Antigen) did not rise above 2.0 ng/ml at any point after therapy. This study also found that only 4 of the 230 patients treated died of prostate cancer indicating a prostate cancer specific survival of more than 98 percent.

Fletcher C. Derrick, Jr., M.D., affiliated with Roper Hospital in Charleston, SC, was the principal investigator and author of the study. "It takes a long time to establish the effectiveness of a cancer therapy," Dr. Derrick said. "These 10-year results solidify the role of cryoablation as a safe, effective and durable procedure. This survival data on cryoablation, combined with its minimally invasive nature and its low morbidity rates, indicate its growing importance as a prostate cancer therapy."

The 249-patient study is the longest outcomes study of cryoablation to date. Consistent with previously published and presented results from independent researchers and physicians, cryoablation appears to be an important alternative treatment for prostate cancer versus the current treatments including radical prostatectomy or radiation therapy.

The study also found morbidity to be low. Only 2 percent of patients had severe incontinence and urethral rectal fistula occurred in less than 0.5 percent of patients. Erectile function returned with time and 50 percent of patients had some return of normal functioning beginning six months after therapy.