On June 12, 2023, Erica Knavel Koepsel, MD was featured on Channel 27 News and WKOW.com to discuss her work in using noninvasive cryoablation techniques to treat prostate cancer. In addition, she was featured in news segments on television stations across Wisconsin.
Traditional treatments for prostate cancer – like surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation – can be invasive and result in side effects like erectile dysfunction and incontinence. Prostate cryoablation, an emerging technique which uses needles to freeze and kill cancer cells in the prostate, is both less invasive and more precise.
“With cryoablation, we are treating half the prostate or even just the area that contains prostate cancer,” said Knavel Koepsel in the WKOW.com article. “Performing cryoablation in this way reduces the risk of common side effects, and usually only requires one night in the hospital.”
UW Health began offering prostate cryoablation in April of 2022. Since then, more than 17 patients have undergone ablation or biopsy. According to the WKOW.com article, Knavel Koepsel says the best candidates for the program are patients with intermediate-risk prostate cancer who want to avoid invasive surgery or those who aren’t satisfied with active prostate cancer surveillance.
UW Health is one of the only health systems in the country — and the only in Wisconsin — that offers prostate cryoablation in an MRI.
To view the segment, visit the WKOW.com website.