Author: Paulo Martins

Thomas J. Polascik, MD, reflects on a manuscript written by his colleagues regarding the use of focal therapy to treat localized prostate cancer.

In Veterans Health Today, Air Force veteran and prostate cancer survivor, Victor Murray talks about being diagnosed with prostate cancer and choosing HIFU, which not only killed the cancer but preserved his quality of life. In this op-ed Victor urges Congress and the VA to expand access to advanced treatments like HIFU and improve outcomes for US service members like himself. 

After Bob Marcolini, an active 80-year-old, was diagnosed with prostate cancer, Dr. Silver of Maimonides Medical Center confirmed that he was a good candidate for Focal HIFU. Here’s a video of Bob’s story.  See how Dr. Silver and Maimonides are giving men like Bob better options with minimally invasive outpatient treatments like HIFU, and preserving their quality of life in the process.

In January 2021 Dr. Silver sent me for a second MRI after my PSA score jumped to 5.6, and now it was time to treat the cancer. That’s when he told me about HIFU, which stands for high intensity focused ultrasound. Dr. Silver was one of the few doctors who does this procedure, and the only one in Brooklyn. He said that HIFU is ideal for patients whose prostate cancer is still confined to the prostate, which mine was.

Between COVID delays and Hurricane Laura, which closed the border between Louisiana and Texas, Norris’s procedure ended up being postponed until October, the same month he was due to return to Dr. Bardot for a follow-up exam. The delay was fortuitous. In the five months since Norris was diagnosed, Ochsner Medical Center acquired Focal One High Intensity Focused Ultrasound — or Focal One HIFU – expressly for treatment of localized prostate cancer and one that dramatically reduced the risk of debilitating side effects. Ochsner was the first hospital in Louisiana to acquire Focal One HIFU. And Norris became the hospital’s first Focal One HIFU patient.

What’s ahead in the Focal Therapy Program at Cleveland Clinic.

High-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU), a type of focal therapy for treating localized prostate cancer, is emerging as an alternative to more traditional treatments, such as surgery and radiation, for select patients. The modality relies on high-frequency sound waves directed at the tumor through an ultrasound probe inserted into the rectum. The high-intensity waves cause the diseased tissue to heat up and die.

Improved HIFU technology, coupled with appropriate patient selection, is enabling us to provide this modality as an outpatient procedure. Cleveland Clinic recently acquired a Focal One^® machine, making it one of very few sites locally and nationally to offer this technology. It combines ablative and imaging techniques to target tumors in the prostate, enabling an attractive 1.5-hour, non-invasive procedure for clinically indicated patients.

When J. Phillip Thompson, PhD, Deputy Mayor of New York City, was diagnosed with prostate cancer, he found the next-level treatment he was looking for at the Maimonides Prostate Center. Under the care of Dr. David Silver, Director of the Division of Urology and leader of the Maimonides Prostate Center, Mr. Thompson underwent focal high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU), a minimally invasive treatment that selectively destroys only the cancerous prostate cells without harming healthy tissue.