• Prostate cancer is a leading male cancer.Image by Flickr.com, courtesy of Alyssa Miller
  
  

Warning

• New alternative therapies are experimental and are not approved outside of a few formal clinical trials. Until these new treatments are tested thoroughly to be both safe and reliable, they are referred to as investigational therapies, and are without any proven track records.
  
  

Cold

• Cryrotherapy involves the freezing of the prostate gland and surrounding tissue. Liquid nitrogen is delivered through probes to the cancerous cells for a minimum of two cycles of freezing and thawing.
  
  

Heat

• Thermal therapy sends out high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) to virtually cook the cancer cells.
  
  Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) also attempts to destroy malignant cells by delivering destructive thermal energy through needles.
  
  

Other New Treatments

• Light therapy delivers a strong chemical derived from plant chlorophyll into the prostate gland. A laser light is then inserted into the gland, activating the chemical and killing the cancer and its blood supply.
  
  Gene therapy involves injecting a virus into the cancer cells which leaves behind a gene called tk, or the suicide gene.
  
  

Side Effects

• Cryrotherapy includes such risks as urinary incontinence, scrotal swelling, penile pain or numbness and erectile dysfunction. Although heat treatments are safer than cryotherapy, they work better on small cancers and may cause urinary blockage. Light therapy clinical trials have not evaluated long-term side effects and costs to develop the treatment, as well as gene therapy, which is very expensive.