HIFU – Latest News

When reviewing the treatment options for LOCALIZED prostate cancer you should study the complications associated with these individual treatment options. Especially so since the SURVIVAL BENEFITS of the four standard treatment options, HIFU, cryoablation,radiation and surgery are SIMILAR but the incidence of their complications are very different and these COMPLICATIONS affect not only the patient but the spouse and their partnership.
In addition, you should review the respective benefits of these four treatment options and also realize prostate cancer can be cured without the prostate having to be cut out through radical/robotic prostatectomy.
In that regard,minimally invasive HIFU is a clear leader as a treatment option for localized prostate cancer with many upsides and very few downsides.
The following HIFU benefits are listed:
> can cure localized prostate cancer
> can cure without sacrificing quality of life (QoL)
> low incidence of side effects and complications
> truly minimally invasive with no overnight hospitalization
> non surgical (no incisions)
> quickest recovery with men ambulating at home within hours of the procedure
> no Foley catheter (no tube in penis)
> most precise of all treatment options
> real time monitoring of neuro-vascular bundles and urinary sphincter helps preserve erections and urine control.
> non radiation. HIFU is clean acoustic energy
> no blood loss
> unlike radiation or cryoablation, HIFU results in expulsion of treated cancerous prostate tissue
> no penile shortening ( the trifecta of complications associated with surgery are: urinary incontinence,impotence and penile shortening)
> treatment is repeatable
> HIFU is ideal for prostate cancer recurrences after surgery, radiation and cryoablation

It is important for the patient and his spouse to do their homework on treatment options for localized prostate cancer. Get the facts on these treatment options and the benefits of HIFU and get it right the first time.
Do NOT let yourself become another miserable statistic with permanent debilitating urinary incontinence and/or impotence after a radical/robotic prostatectomy.

Cure means complete disappearance of disease and restoration of health.
For prostate cancer,many of the data points used to assess the stage of a man’s prostate cancer and his risk for progression of the disease are affected by physician subjectivity for interpreting scale of disorder. If the data points can be so affected by subjectivity then they lack accuracy and therefore the cure rates generated by these data points lack reliability. Because of these concerns for lack of reliability and lack of reproducibility in generating cure rates for prostate cancer,the use of the term survival seems more appropriate as it is less limiting when applied to prostate cancer treatment success.
T1c stage prostate cancer is the most common presentation for prostate cancer currently and is detected because of an abnormal PSA.
This T1c stage defines a localized prostate cancer and the survival benefits between the four different treatment categories for localized prostate cancer are similar. However,of these treatment options for localized prostate cancer,only HIFU is the most precise as well as affording a superior post treatment quality of life (QOL). The continued evolution of this state of the art technology should result in even greater prostate cancer survival benefits in the future.

It is very important for men and their wives to do their homework when considering treatment options for their localized prostate cancer. This is especially so since most urologists and prostate cancer support groups are not totally conversant with all of the 6 broad groups of treatment options for prostate cancer and will be unlikely to apprise you of them. These 6 categories of treatment options include HIFU,cryoablation,radiation,surgery,androgen deprivation therapy (adt) and active surveillance.
The reason it is important for men to study their treatment options for localized prostate cancer is that generally, for properly selected patients, there are no clear survival benefits between the different treatment categories. The complications,however, are very different between the options. This has been outlined at http://www.hifurx.com/cancer/quality-of-life.html . Therefore, if generally the survival benefits are similar for all of the treatment options surely you would want to focus on options that are associated with minimal complications and superior quality of life (qol) issues. Especially since the complications associated with the treatment of a man’s prostate cancer also indirectly affect the spouse and the partnership lifelong.
HIFU,as a minimally invasive,out patient,non surgical, non radiation treatment for localized prostate cancer is uniquely positioned to accomplish both survival benefits and superior quality of life after treatment.