Cryosurgery for cancer.

Cryosurgery has a wide range of uses for the destruction of tumours. Acceptability among dermatologists for the treatment of skin cancer appears high. In the treatment of oral cancer, cryosurgery is not yet widely accepted, but it should be more commonly used for early cancer and in the management of selected problems in therapy. It has established a reasonably firm place in the treatment of prostatic cancer, perhaps because of continued interest in the immunologic benefits, while its use in gynecologic organs is limited to carcinoma in situ or to selected patients with advanced cancer. In all these areas, it has been used with surprisingly good results in selected patients who were high risks under conventional methods of therapy. The trial of cryosurgery in the treatment of bone tumors should prove its efficacy. Today's interest in cryosurgery is consistent with the current trend to conservatism in cancer surgery.