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A New Technique for Treating Low-risk Prostate Cancer—Super Active Surveillance
Published on: November 7, 2025
Third-generation salvage cryotherapy for radiorecurrent prostate cancer: a centre's experience
Prodromos Philippou1, Tet Yap, Francis Chinegwundoh
1Barts and The London NHS Trust, London, UK. brucemed@hotmail.com
Introduction:
The experience of a tertiary centre in the management of recurrent prostate cancer after radiotherapy by salvage cryotherapy is presented.
Patients And Methods:
Between February 2006 and August 2008, 19 patients underwent salvage cryotherapy for radiorecurrent prostate cancer. Post-radiotherapy recurrence was confirmed by prostatic biopsy. The 'Phoenix definition' was used to define biochemical failure after salvage cryotherapy.
Results:
The mean age at cryotherapy was 69.2 years and the mean time from radiotherapy to cryotherapy was 72.3 months. Patient characteristics prior to cryotherapy included a mean PSA level of 6.84 ng/ml and a median Gleason score of 7. The mean post-cryotherapy follow-up was 33.3 months. The 2-year biochemical disease-free survival rate was 58%. The median post-cryotherapy PSA nadir was 0.20 ng/ml (range 0.005-8.260). There were no procedure-related or cancer-related deaths. Complications included incontinence (10.5%), erectile dysfunction (89%) and fistula formation (5.3%).
Conclusions:
The relatively high rates of biochemical response support the use of cryotherapy as a salvage procedure for radiorecurrent prostate cancer.
