Michael O. Koch, MD, is professor and chairman of the department of urology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis.
Over the last 20 years, radical retropubic prostatectomy has evolvedto become the standard of care in men with localized prostate cancer. Becauseof the morbidity of this procedure, however, interest has grown in the developmentof non-surgical modalities. Unfortunately, many of these non-surgical approaches,such as monotherapy with radioactive seed implantation, have resulted indisappointing results or excessive morbidity, as in first-generation cryotherapy.
