This technique consists of destroying cancerous cells with cold. It allows in more than 80% of cases to avoid a recurrence.
The cold can heal. Cryotherapy is a promising technique for treating prostate cancer. In The Journal of Urology, researchers show that it can destroy cancer cells in most patients. For 82% of them, there is no relapse in the 18 months following treatment.
An effective technique
Sixty-one men with stage 2 or higher prostate cancer participated in the study. They all received cryotherapy treatment, being placed under general anesthesia. This consisted in injecting argon, a gas, into needles, previously placed around and in the tumour. Immediately, extremely cold temperatures destroy cancer cells. For six months, the researchers followed the group of men, including performing regular biopsies. For the majority of them, the treatment was effective and in those who experienced a relapse, a second intervention of cryotherapy made it possible to destroy the cancerous cells. No patient died from the cancer and no tumors metastasized. In men suffering from stage 3 or 4 cancer, cryotherapy also eliminated cancer cells.
Low intensity side effects
Some participants experienced some moderate side effects, including incontinence, a common complication after prostate cancer operations. One patient suffered from erectile function disorders, which could be treated with medication. Generally speaking, cryotherapy is a less invasive method than surgery in the management of prostate cancer.
Special vigilance after the operation
To follow the patients, the researchers combined three methods: biopsy of the area where the tumor was located, biopsy targeting lesions visible on MRI and biopsy of the prostate as a whole using modelling. “These three techniques were necessary for maximum cancer detection.”underlines one of the co-authors of the study, Doctor Chuang.
Frequent cancer, but problematic screening
Each year, 54,000 new cases of prostate cancer are detected in France. It is the most common cancer in men. The disease causes few symptoms in the early stages. After some time, the men concerned may feel in particular a frequent need to urinate, notice the presence of blood in the urine or suffer from pain when urinating.
Screening examinations are carried out either by digital rectal examination or by evaluation of the dosage of PSA, prostate specific antigen. In France, systematic screening is not recommended because of the lack of reliability of these examinations. As recalled by Cancer Research Foundationdigital rectal examination alone “does not confirm the presence of a cancerous abnormality” and the PSA test can be distorted by long car journeys or recent sexual intercourse and does not “not enough to detect prostate cancer either..
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