Newly Diagnosed Prostate Cancer Patients Owe It to Themselves to Learn About Both Conventional and Non-Conventional Therapies
You’ve been diagnosed with prostate cancer. Your biopsy, PSA and Gleason tests are all higher than you and your doctor would like but not so high that you are panicking.
Perhaps you’ve been observing/watching/waiting for a time and you are considering active therapy.
You are skeptical of both radical prostatectomy and radiation for fear of urinary incontinence and/or erectile dysfunction.
No therapy for prostate cancer is without risks. Careful study and research is required as this is a very important decision you are making…If your diagnosis is stage and testing is within the ranges cited below, you may want to consider HIFU therapy.
I am a long-term cancer survivor and cancer coach. For more information about all of your treatment options scroll down the page, post a question or comment and I will reply to you ASAP.
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thank you,
David Emerson
- Cancer survivor
- Cancer Coach
- Director of PeopleBeatingCancer
Recommended Reading:
“The first ultrasound system for the ablation of prostate tissue in the United States has just been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)…
The technology has already been used to a wide variety of conditions, including benign prostatic hyperplasia, partial gland cancer, localized whole-gland prostate cancer, and recurrent prostate cancer…“It is also more benign, with low rates of incontinence and post-treatment erectile dysfunction,” he said…
“High-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU, or sometimes FUS for Focused UltraSound) is a medical procedure that applies high-intensity focused ultrasound energy to locally heat and destroy diseased or damaged tissue through ablation.”
“RESULTS:No randomised controlled trials were identified by the literature search. We identified 31 uncontrolled studies that examined the efficacy of HIFU as primary treatment and two studies that examined the efficacy of HIFU as salvage treatment.
- Most treated patients had localised prostate cancer (stage T1-T2);
- Gleason scores of 2-10 and
- Mean prostate specific antigen (PSA) values of 4.6-12.7 ng/mL.
- The mean age range of the patients was 64.1-72 years.
- The mean follow-up ranged from 6.4 to 76.8 months.
- Negative biopsy rates ranged from 35 to 95%.
- PSA nadirs ranged from 0.04 to 1.8 ng/mL.
- The 5-year disease-free survival rates ranged from 61.2 to 95%; 7- and 8-year disease free survival rates ranged from 69 to 84%.
CONCLUSIONS: Novel therapeutic methods have emerged in recent years as ‘focal’ treatment alternatives, in which cancer foci could be eradicated by greatly reducing the associated side-effects of radical treatment. • HIFU seems to result in short- to medium-term cancer control, with a low rate of complications comparable with those of established therapies. • However, longer-term follow-up studies are needed to evaluate cancer-specific and overall survival.
“High-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) is a minimally invasive treatment for prostate cancer. Data from the literature show promising oncological outcomes with a favourable side-effect profile…
Materials and methods. Between 2004 and 2007, 163 consecutive men with T1-T3N0M0 prostate cancer underwent HIFU with the Sonablate® 500.
Conclusions. A long-term favourable outcome of HIFU is associated with careful patient selection, with low- to intermediate-risk disease being the ideal case. A low postoperative PSA nadir is a predictor of long-term bNED.”
“High-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) therapy has been proposed for the treatment of localized prostate cancer (PCa) for all risk levels of tumour recurrence…
Durable cancer control was achieved in 81.7% of patients with low-risk disease, with rates of efficacy declining in intermediate- and high-risk tumours. The data suggest that the principal domain for minimal invasive HIFU should be low-risk disease.
CONCLUSION:Single-session HIFU is recommended as a curative approach in elderly patients with low-risk PCa. Patients at higher risk of tumour progression should be counselled regarding the likely need for salvage therapy, including repeat HIFU.”
“In a coverage policy document released January 12, 2018, CIGNA, a major private health insurance company, states that coverage of HIFU as a salvage therapy after failure of radiotherapy will be considered for patients who have completed a repeat transrectal ultrasounded-guided biopsy and who are suspected of having local recurrence of disease.
Evidence provided by prospective and retrospective noncomparative studies, although not robust, “suggests that HIFU is safe and effective for a subset of patients with localized recurrent prostate cancer after treatment with radiation therapy,” the CIGNA document says…”
