HIFU: a focal treatment for prostate cancer: Expert opinion: Video

[JimJimJimJim]

Jim Marshall (not a doctor) said ...

Wouldn't it be good just to treat the little spot of cancer that is first seen on your prostate and stop the whole thing in its tracks?

Just treating a little bit is called 'focal treatment' in the trade.

There are a number of ways of doing this focal treatment - cutting it out, radiating it with high power x-rays, freezing it, burning it ...

Trouble is so far (29 June 2019) the evidence that this will match or beat standard treatments has not emerged.

(I have noted the date. You should too when you see any advice online. If it's too long ago, look for newer advice.)

For advanced men who still have their prostate, focal treatment can sometimes be considered.

This video is by Dr Mark Scholz. He an expert medical oncologist who offers free advice through the Prostate Cancer Research Institute (PCRI).

It is about focal treatment using High Intensity Focussed Ultrasound.

The video is 3 minutes long.

... end Jim

 

[Barree]

I know a number of members that have been treated with Hifu. Based on their treatment results I feel this video sums up the position accurately. Its certainly food for thought.

[Patrick Turner]

I don't know anyone who had this treatment, but it does seem to rely too much  on the skill of a surgeon. 

There is always a high chance that the Pca lesion is near nerves around the PG or near the prostatic urethra and Hifu can easily cause damage to things a man needs to keep working.

The other concern is that after zapping the small lesion area, and leaving a margin around it, there is maybe 1/2 the PG left that has not been treated but it all would have same DNA as the cells treated and in time the untreated cells may develop Pca because that's what they do. So I would never have chosen this treatment. Once a Pca lesion is found, even if its no bigger than a grain of rice, then safer option is to have a full RP, and even this does not mean Pca has not already spread. Men should be able to have PG removed BEFORE any Pca is detected if they want. Nerves might all be able to be spared, and so the man need not have ADT, so he's continent and there's no ED, and a good life continues. I discussed this option with a directing doc at a leading Melbourne hospital and he said he just could never sell this op to men. Men tend to be very timid about accepting preventative surgery. Medicare probably would not pay a cent.........…. But knowing what I know now, after a long tedious expensive fight with Pca, such an op for me in 2004 would have been just great, 5 years before docs found my PG was inoperable in 2009 with Gleason 9, too much Pca, even when Psa was only 6 at diagnosis after biopsy.

Patrick Turner.