Best Practices Document on Cryoablation Posted on Website of American Urological A...( IRVINE Calif. Sept. 23 /- Endocar...)

IRVINE, Calif., Sept. 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Endocare, Inc. (Nasdaq: ENDO), an innovative medical device company focused on the development of minimally invasive technologies for tissue and tumor ablation, announced today that the American Urological Association (AUA) has for the first time posted on its website the organization's official "best practice" document on cryoablation for prostate cancer, covering primary, salvage and focal cryoablation, also called cryosurgery. The AUA posting of these clinical guidelines is an acknowledgement of the important advances made in the technology of cryoablation, a minimally invasive treatment for prostate cancer that freezes cancerous tumors to destroy them, said Endocare Chairman, President and CEO Craig T. Davenport.

"This is a principled and unbiased assessment of the effectiveness of cryoablation for treating prostate cancer made by the country's most prestigious association of urologists," Davenport said. "The AUA panel that did the assessment looked at all the published studies of cryoablation and came to the conclusion that it is a valuable treatment that should be considered by prostate cancer patients. The publication of these guidelines helps to place cryoablation more squarely in the mainstream of prostate cancer treatments."

The 51-page document, titled "Best Practice Policy Statement on Cryosurgery for the Treatment of Localized Prostate Cancer" and officially adopted at the recent AUA national conference, specifically notes the "seven-to-eight-year biochemical disease free results of cryosurgery. The literature reports that the morbidity profile associated with cryosurgery has improved in all aspects, including continence, rectal/urethral fistula formation, ureth
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