Cryotherapy, or cold treatment

Another way to kill prostate cancer is to freeze prostate tissue. By the same method, warts are removed by dropping the tampon into liquid nitrogen and then lubricating the wart that dies and disappears. The prostate tissue also dies, which is then adsorbed and processed by your body.

This procedure is called cryotherapy or cryoextraction and consists of injecting five to seven metal rods about 15 cm into your prostate through the perineum. An ultrasound probe inserted into the rectum helps the

physician correctly position them. When the end of the rod reaches the desired point, liquid nitrogen starts to circulate and begins to circulate, which lowers the temperature to about -190 degrees Celsius. As the tissue freezes, ice crystals are formed and grow in cancer cells, cells break and die. To prevent freezing of the urethra along with the prostate, a catheter with a warming solution is inserted into it.

The entire procedure takes about two hours, with more time left for the proper location of the sticks, the freezing of the prostate itself lasts about 30 minutes.

After this procedure, you will have to spend several days in the hospital. In a couple of weeks, you are likely to be able to return to the ordinary way of life. However, your body will need from nine months to a year to get rid of dead cells. Sometimes the procedure has to be done again.

In Russia, this procedure is not very popular.

You may be approached by cryotherapy if:

Cancer is located in the prostate gland.

You are not healthy enough to withstand the operation.

You do not want to have an operation or undergo radiation.

The use of cryotherapy does not allow the spread of cancer beyond the prostate for five years after treatment in 60-75% of cases.

With this method of treatment, you spend at the hospital only one or two days, and sometimes cryotherapy is done without hospitalization.

Loss of blood is negligible.

Recovery period is short, only one or two weeks.

This method is quite new and not widely used.

Cryotherapy does not always kill all cancer cells, sometimes the procedure has to be repeated.

Cryotherapy carries 80 to 90% of the risk of impotence, since the nerve bundles responsible for erection can freeze and die.

You may have trouble urinating for several weeks. Freezing causes temporary swelling of the prostate, which compresses the urethra.

Puncture sites will be sick for a while.