Prostate cryosurgery has been increasingly used for the management of localized prostate cancer since its introduction in a minimally invasive form in the early 1990s. We performed a retrospective study of the largest and most mature patient group treated with cryosurgery reported thus far.

We retrospectively analyzed the data from 370 patients treated consecutively from 1991 to 1996 with a focus on the determination of biochemical disease-free survival for a group of patients with T1 to T3 prostate cancer who had undergone prostate cryosurgery as primary monotherapy. Only patients with no previous radiotherapy, hormonal therapy, or surgery were included.

The median follow-up was 12.55 years. Using a nadir plus 2 ng/dL definition, Kaplan-Meier analysis demonstrated a biochemical disease-free survival rate at 10 years of 80.56%, 74.16%, and 45.54% for low, moderate, and high-risk groups, respectively. The 10-year negative biopsy rate was 76.96%.

The results for this pilot group of patients who underwent percutaneous prostate cryosurgery monotherapy demonstrated biochemical disease-free survival rates that overlap with those of similar groups of patients treated under similar circumstances using other types of nonextirpative monotherapy.