[Prostate cryotherapy: General principles.]

INTRODUCTION: Prostate cryotherapy has been consolidated as an alternative minimally invasive treatment. OBJECTIVE: To exposed its historical development, its action mechanism and the surgical technique. Regarding its indications, we expose the different option of treatment- primary cryotherapy, salvage and focal- emphasizing its oncological results in the absence of randomized studies. RESULTS: Cryotherapy is a safe technique with low complication rate, although incidence of erectile dysfunction is 40-90% in case of full-gland cryotherapy. Nowadays, it is recommended as a therapeutic alternative for low and intermediate risk localized prostate cancer, although in clinical trials. Recurrence-free survival is close to 96% in low-risk tumors and 90% in intermediate-risk tumors. On the other hand, it is a salvage treatment option for local recurrence after radiotherapy. Focal therapies including focal cryoablation have an important development, with recurrence-free survival of 75%. CONCLUSION: Waiting for randomized studies that provide more scientific evidence, available retrospective studies show cryotherapy as a safe and effective treatment option in patients with localized prostate cancer.