title: Ablation of superficial bladder tumors with focused extracorporeal pyrotherapy.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We report the first experimental studies of focused extracorporeal pyrotherapy.
  
  
  METHODS
  Focused extracorporeal pyrotherapy has been used to treat superficial bladder tumors in a Phase II protocol in 25 patients. In 5 cases, for technical reasons, pyrotherapy was not used. In 20 patients (10 under general anesthesia and 10 under spinal anesthesia), the mean treated volume was 3 cm3 with an average of 300 shots and a mean skin focused length of 90 mm. Treatment time was 44 minutes; hospital stay was 2 days. Postoperatively, two skin burns and one acute retention were observed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of 20 patients, 15 (75%) had a normal urinary cytology bladder ultrasonography and cystoscopy at 1 month. In 67% of patients with primary tumor, there was no recurrence at 1 year; 33% had recurrent tumors. No infiltrative tumor or metastases have been observed during this follow-up (3 to 21 months).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These encouraging results show that ablation of superficial bladder tumor is feasible. The technique must be improved to allow treatment of larger tumor volume in a shorter time.
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology and Pathology, Institut Mutualiste Montsouris, Paris, France.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Vallancien
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Harouni
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Guillonneau
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Veillon
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bougaran
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D004867:Equipment Design; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000628:therapy*; D012307:Risk Factors; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014464:Ultrasonic Therapy / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D001749:Urinary Bladder Neoplasms / Q000628:therapy*