Ultrasound treatment improves prospects for men with prostate cancer

A new prostate cancer treatment could provide more effective treatment with fewer side effects.

A study University College London used an experimental treatment known as Hifu (high-intensity focused ultrasound) to treat areas of cancer that are only a few millimetres in size.

The “focal therapy” technique is similar in principle to the “lumpectomy” operation commonly used as an alternative to a full mastectomy in breast cancer.

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One year after treatment none of the 41 men in the trial had incontinence, and just one in 10 suffered from poor erections – both common side effects of conventional treatment. Most (95 per cent) were also cancer-free after a year.

The researchers also concluded that “focal therapy of individual prostate cancer lesions, whether multifocal or unifocal, leads to a low rate of genitourinary side-effects and an encouraging rate of early absence of clinically significant prostate cancer”. Chief researcher Dr Hashim Ahmed said: “We’re optimistic that men diagnosed with prostate cancer may soon be able to undergo a day case surgical procedure, which can be safely repeated once or twice, to treat their condition with very few side-effects. That could mean a significant improvement in their quality of life.”

The results of the first phase of the study were published in the journal Lancet Oncology.