Focal HIFU - Prostate Cancer Treatment

This is a new option for men with unifocal or unilateral Prostate Cancer. (This means a single tumour inside the prostate or several tumours but all on the same side of the prostate gland). With FOCAL HIFU only the tumour is treated and not the whole gland. It uses a high energy focused ultrasound beam, which is directed across the wall of the back passage into the prostate to heat and destroy a very precise volume of tissue. The aim of FOCAL HIFU is to leave untreated as much of the healthy tissue as possible. It is the equivalent treatment for men with prostate cancer which is available for women with breast cancer - the male lumpectomy.

FOCAL HIFU could be suitable for men with low or intermediate risk Prostate Cancer, who have unifocal or unilateral disease. If following the careful prostate mapping, your clinician is sure that the cancer is confined to a specific area in the prostate, they then can just treat these areas with HIFU and monitor the untreated areas.

The good news is that this will allow you to avoid or reduce the damage to surrounded structures such as the muscle controlling urine flow and the nerves controlling erections whilst still offering cancer control. This means you can have a treatment for your prostate cancer without all of the associated side-effects with other treatments.

The benefits of Focal HIFU:

- By treating the tumour not the whole gland there are fewer side effects
- Preservation in most cases of the vital structures around the gland therefore preserving long term continence, erectile and orgasmic function
- Shorter procedure (20 minutes to one hour and a half hours) and almost always no hospital stay required
- Rapid return to normal life after treatment
- Almost 100% of patients maintain sexual potency
- No incision is required which avoids the risk of surgical infection
- The procedure can be repeated as necessary

All men are followed up after FOCAL HIFU with PSA tests every three months. If the PSA rises then further diagnosis is undertaken, but for approximately 90% of men treated, FOCAL HIFU should be the only treatment required. If further treatment is required this is usually a further HIFU treatment, though any of the traditional treatments including surgery and radiotherapy are possible after FOCAL HIFU.