Ablative technologies for urologic cancers

Driven by patient preference and a more favorable oncologic prognosis at diagnosis, there has been a paradigm shift in the treatment of urologic cancers. Although the standard of care for most urologic malignancies continues to be surgical extirpation, ablation, in the form of needle-based or extracorporeal approaches, is quickly establishing itself as a viable primary treatment option. If there is anything to be learned from pioneering studies, it is that there must be strict adherence to inclusion criteria for patient enrollment and that there are real limitations with each approach. It is only with this awareness that we can achieve maximal benefit while limiting the number of unnecessary complications and poor oncologic outcomes.