According to the American Cancer Society, prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men, after skin cancer, and an anticipated 174,650 new cases will have been diagnosed by the end of 2019. While this is not welcome news, men diagnosed with prostate cancer can find assurance in understanding the stage of their disease and treatment options, which can actually bring comfort since most prostate cancers are curable if detected early. In addition, there are treatment options available today that lower the risks of unwanted side effects, such as urinary incontinence and erectile dysfunction.
Author: Paulo Martins
The Armor Men’s Health Hour
The Armor Men’s Health Hour with hosts Dr. Sandeep Mistry and Donna Lee Is a weekly show covering the multitude of medical topics important to men. Listen the podcast about HIFU treatment for Prostate Cancer.
Q & A with Edward Uchio, M.D. at UCI Health – Prostate cancer
In February 2019, UCI Health in Irvine, CA became the first medical center in the U.S. to treat localized prostate cancer with one of the most precise tools for destroying diseased prostate tissue, Focal One high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU).
Now there’s a noninvasive treatment for prostate cancer: high-intensity focused ultrasound
Dr. Brian Miles, a urologist at Houston Methodist, is adding to treatment options for men diagnosed with prostrate cancer. He works with a new machine that uses ultrasound technology to eliminate tumors in the prostate.
New technology gives this Houston hospital a competitive edge
As the top ranking hospital in Texas and one of the biggest employers in Houston, Houston Methodist Hospital is poised to treat the thousands of Texan men who will be diagnosed with prostate cancer this year.
Building on its legacy of delivering advanced cancer treatment, the healthcare giant is one of the first hospitals in the United States to offer men a benign approach to treating localized prostate cancer, using high intensity focused ultrasound, or HIFU. HIFU is a minimally invasive procedure that allows patients to maintain their quality of life with potentially fewer side effects.
Sound waves: A noninvasive way to attack prostate cancer
After a PSA test Jeff Nelson’s knew he had a prostate cancer and he had to move quickly to treat it. A prostate cancer specialist, Edward M. Uchio, recommended him to use a technique called MRI fusion biopsy. The fusion between MRI and biopsies allows to know the area to treat.
Uchio and Nelson discussed his options, to choose the best treatment. Nelson chose the Focal One treatment because it was non-invasive (no needles and no scalpels) and accurate to target the prostate cancerous tissue. he was able to come back home the same day of the treatment.
According to Dr. Uchio, traditional treatments for prostate cancer have benefits but also risks and focal HIFU technology may offer a safer way. Indeed this method is expected to lower potential side effects.
Focal One High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) for Treating Prostate Cancer
In february 2019 John Wayne Cancer Institute (JWCI) at the Providence Saint John’s Health Center acquired Focal One. Focal One is a medical device for performing a targeted and non-invasive ablation of diseased prostate tissue. Mehran Movassaghi, M.D, MBA, Director of Pacific Men’s Health at Providence Saint John’s, was asked to discuss about it.
Focal One allows the urologist to precisely target the portion of the prostate with the disease. As a consequence, only the prostate areas harboring cancer are treated, living healthy tissue intact.
There are 3 ways to manage prostate cancer: active surveillance, localized and complete treatment. According to Dr. Mehran Movassaghi, “Focal One fills a significant void between active surveillance and radical treatments.”
When Your Husband Has Prostate Cancer…
Women whose husbands receive a diagnosis of prostate cancer are often the ones who swing into action, research treatment options, advise their husbands, and offer emotional support before, during and after treatment.
And unlike wives of husbands who may be fighting heart disease or diabetes, couples confronting prostate cancer face a delicate dilemma since the man’s ability to be sexually intimate with his partner may be compromised. Some treatments may also render the man incontinent, forcing him to wear an adult diaper for an extended period or even for the rest of his life.
Three women, Sharie, Gail and Nancy live in different cities and have diverse careers, but they each became instant caregivers and experts in prostate cancer therapies when their husbands received the troubling diagnosis. And each couple chose a different procedure.
Sharie, who works at a Colorado bank, dug up so much information about the disease she ended up creating a spreadsheet to keep track of all the pros and cons for the treatments available to her husband of 27 years who was diagnosed with localized prostate cancer at the age of 56 in 2016.
Besides learning about levels of PSA (prostate-specific antigen) as well as Gleason scores which are both used to assess the severity or risks of prostate cancer, Sharie and her husband Les were concerned about the side effects of several treatments.