This is a bibliographic record of a published health technology assessment. No evaluation of the quality of this assessment has been made for the HTA database.

This study aims to assess the effects of cryotherapy compared with conventional treatments in men with prostate cancer.

We found no evidence that cryosurgery improved clinical outcomes. Weak evidence from methodologically flawed case series suggested that cryosurgery may reduce biochemical and histological markers of disease from pre-intervention levels, although the clinical importance of such a reduction is unclear. We found no controlled trials comparing cryosurgery with other treatments. Cryosurgery is associated with important adverse effects, particularly impotence, and remains an experimental treatment until well-designed randomised controlled trials provide evidence of its clinical effectiveness.