Does HIFU really work for prostate cancer?
The HIFU treatment may be an effective non-invasive way to stop prostate cancer, but it doesn’t always remove all of the damage tissues or cancer cells. We currently have about 10 years of data from which to work when evaluating the high-intensity focused ultrasound process.
Is HIFU and Ultherapy the same thing?
Ultherapy and HIFU are non-surgical skin tightening treatments for face lifting and skin rejuvenation. They are 2 of the most popular anti-aging treatments. HIFU and Ultherapy have a lot more similarities than differences. I tell my patients that “Ultherapy vs HIFU” is similar to “iPhone versus Samsung smartphones”.
What is the best way to treat prostate cancer?
Radiation therapy can:
- Treat both early stage cancers of the prostate gland and more advanced cancers that may have spread beyond the prostate
- Be used alone or with other treatments such as hormone deprivation
- Treat recurrent prostate cancer following surgery
- Treat men with limited spreading prostate cancer to reduce the tumors size and improve survival and quality of life
Is HIFU covered by insurance?
While you can certainly request that your HIFU procedure be pre-authorized by your insurance plan, this is typically not possible because HIFU does not have a “CPT” code. Because of this, there is usually no mechanism that allows for insurance company coverage. Occasionally, you can get retroactive reimbursement.
How long does HIFU prostate treatment last?
The HIFU procedure typically lasts between 1-4 hours, depending on the size of the prostate, and is either done under general or epidural anesthesia. During the procedure a suprapubic or foley catheter will be put into place to help with urination, and will typically stay in place for 1-3 weeks.
What are the side effects of HIFU?
The most common side effects are urinary problems and difficulty getting or keeping an erection (erectile dysfunction). Having HIFU more than once may increase your risk of urinary problems, but it doesn't appear to increase your risk of other side effects.
How successful is HIFU?
During follow-up, 91% of HIFU patients successfully avoided radical treatment. Also, 73% of patients did not experience treatment failure, which the researchers defined as clinically significant cancer recurrence, metastases or mortality, or the need for additional hormone therapy, chemotherapy, surgery or radiation.
What is the cost of HIFU treatment for prostate cancer?
Additionally, the cost of the HIFU machine ranges from $450,000 to $700,000, adding to the overall costs of the technology relative to other treatment options.
What happens to prostate after HIFU?
A catheter must be worn for 14 days following treatment as there will be swelling and edema of the treated prostate. The catheter drains the urine from the bladder until the swelling of the prostate subsides. After the HIFU treatment, the destroyed prostate tissue is passed in the urine.
What should my PSA be after a HIFU procedure?
After whole-gland HIFU, the mean prostate-specific antigen (PSA) nadir was found to be 0.4 to 1.95 ng/mL and the mean time to PSA nadir was 2.4 to 5.4 months.
Is HIFU better than prostatectomy?
Data confirm that HIFU is not a safe option for patjents with high-risk prostate cancer. Whole gland high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) therapy is less effective than radical prostatectomy in controlling prostate cancer (PCa), except in men with low-risk disease, according to long-term results from a new study.
Is HIFU a good option?
Conclusions: We demonstrated that HIFU represents a useful alternative choice in mini-invasive therapy of prostate cancer. Particularly, results are remarkable in localized (low-intermediate risk) and low morbility prostate cancer. The role of this procedure in high risk patients needs to be further evaluated.
Who is a candidate for HIFU?
In general, the best candidates for HIFU have early, localized prostate cancer, an average size prostate, and desire a less invasive treatment that has a low risk of urinary leakage and erectile dysfunction. When cancer is confined to specific region of the prostate, Focal or Targeted HIFU treatment is possible.
How long has HIFU been around for prostate cancer?
The first HIFU prostate cancer clinical trials, completed in the mid-1990s, showed that HIFU could ablate prostate tissue successfully. This finding led to additional studies, and HIFU ultimately entered clinical practice around the world during the following decade.
Does HIFU cure cancer?
High intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) High intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) is a treatment that aims to kill cancer cells with high frequency sound waves. HIFU doesn't pass through solid bone or air, so it's not suitable for every cancer. HIFU is a cancer treatment that uses high-frequency sound waves.
Is HIFU considered surgery?
A high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) procedure is a technique that uses ultrasound to treat prostate cancer. You may hear your doctor call it "minimally invasive," which means a surgeon doesn't have to cut you open. It is typically used to treat low grade, localized prostate cancer.
What is HIFU ultrasound?
What Are the Side Effects? A high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) procedure is a technique approved by the FDA to remove prostate tissue. Though it hasn't been approved for the treatment of prostate cancer in the U.S., it is being used in clinical trials to treat it. Researchers are still figuring out how well it works and its side effects.
How does HIFU work?
Instead of light rays, though, HIFU uses sound waves that a doctor points through the wall of your rectum -- the bottom part of your large intestine. They'll direct the waves at your cancer cells. The sound waves heat up to temperatures as high as 90 C (194 F) and can kill cancer cells in just a few seconds.
How to catch urine during a prostate biopsy?
The doctor will thread a small tube called a catheter through the head of your penis and into your bladder to catch urine during the procedure. Your doctor will put an ultrasound probe into your rectum. It's a small instrument like the ones used for prostate biopsies. The probe may have one or two crystals inside.
How does sound waves work in prostate?
Sound waves from a crystal bounce back to a computer to make a picture of the prostate gland. This will show where to send the sound waves. A crystal sends focused sound waves through the rectal wall and into the gland. An MRI might be used to keep track of the treatment.
Can a prostate surgeon cut you open?
You may hear your doctor call it "minimally invasive," which means a surgeon doesn't have to cut you open. Men with cancer that hasn't spread beyond the prostate may get the surgery. Your doctor may suggest it either before you've tried other treatments or after radiation therapy that didn't help.
What is a HIFU?
HIFU Clinical Update (PDF) The basic concept of how HIFU targets, burns and destroys specific prostate tissue is similar to how a magnifying glass can use the sun’s rays of light to burn a precise hole in a leaf at the point of intersection. Similar principles apply to HIFU.
How does HIFU work?
HIFU destroys prostate cancer through the delivery of precise and focused sound waves to a targeted spot of diseased prostate tissue. This technology uses ultrasound energy, not radiation, to destroy the targeted tissue. The Ultrasound energy, or sound waves, is transmitted through the rectal wall and focused at desired locations within ...
What is the purpose of a HIFU transducer?
Instead of using light as the source of energy, HIFU uses sound, and instead of a magnifying glass, HIFU uses a transducer. The sound waves that are aimed at the prostate tissue, rapidly increase tissue temperature, destroying only the cancerous lesions and protecting the healthy surrounding tissue.
What is a high intensity focused ultrasound?
What is high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU)? High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound or HIFU is an FDA-approved, minimally invasive procedure for the treatment of prostate cancer that offers personalized treatment and dramatically reduced side effects.
Who are the UCLA Urologists?
Eligible patients have low-to-intermediate risk prostate cancer, with prostates that are not too enlarged. UCLA Urologists, Drs. Leonard Marks and Allan Pantuck, were the study investigators for the first U.S.-based HIFU clinical trails that began in March 2009. UCLA became the lead enroller nationwide for that study.
What is a HIFU?
A beam of ultrasound energy travels into the prostate from a probe put into the back passage (rectum). There are two types of HIFU: whole-prostate HIFU, which treats the whole prostate.
When does PSA level drop after HIFU?
Your PSA level is likely to reach its lowest level a few months after HIFU. You may also have a prostate biopsy or MRI scan after treatment to check your prostate cancer has been treated successfully. If you have focal HIFU, you might have low-risk cancer in another area of the prostate that is not treated on purpose.
How does a HIFU machine work?
Your surgeon will plan your treatment so the HIFU machine moves the beam around, heating and destroying the cancer cells in the area being treated. The probe also uses ultrasound to create images of the prostate while your surgeon is treating it.
What is a TURP prostate?
Transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) is an operation to remove prostate tissue and improve the flow of urine. This operation is sometimes used before HIFU to reduce the risk of some urinary problems after the treatment.
What to do if you can't urinate after HIFU?
After HIFU, the treated prostate tissue can block the urethra. If your flow of urine is weak or slow after your catheter is taken out, speak to your doctor or nurse. If you can’t urinate at all, call your doctor or nurse straight away or go to your nearest accident and emergency (A&E) department.
How does a prostate ultrasound work?
Your surgeon will place a probe inside your back passage (rectum). The probe gives out a beam of high-intensity ultrasound energy, which travels through the wall of the back passage into the prostate. The beam treats one small area of the prostate at a time – the size of a grain of rice. Your surgeon will plan your treatment so ...
What is the best way to find out if you have prostate cancer?
You’ll have a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan, which produces detailed images of the prostate and shows the location of the cancer. You may also have a prostate biopsy, which shows the location of the cancer and how likely the cancer is to grow and spread outside the prostate.
Provide a little history: How did HIFU progress to a treatment for primary prostate cancer?
The first HIFU prostate cancer clinical trials, completed in the mid-1990s, showed that HIFU could ablate prostate tissue successfully. This finding led to additional studies, and HIFU ultimately entered clinical practice around the world during the following decade.
What type of patient is particularly well suited for HIFU?
The ideal candidate for focal therapy typically has intermediate-risk prostate cancer located in only one area of the prostate. This location is determined by prostate magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and targeted prostate biopsy.
What are the major contraindications to HIFU?
There are a few limitations to HIFU. The first is prostate volume or size. HIFU treatment is delivered through a probe in the rectum, and the treatment can only reach so far away from the rectum. If patients have large prostates and anterior tumors, the energy may not reach anterior enough to provide effective treatment and negative margins.
How do you counsel patients who receive HIFU? What is the typical side effect and complication profile? What is the typical recovery?
Overall the focal HIFU procedure is very well tolerated. HIFU is done as an outpatient procedure with a same-day discharge. A Foley catheter is placed during the procedure and is usually left in place for 5 to 7 days following the procedure to allow post-treatment swelling of the prostate to subside.
Briefly, what are the logistics of the delivery of HIFU?
The HIFU procedure is done while the patient is under general anesthesia. Once the patient is completely anesthetized, a special ultrasound probe is placed in the rectum. There are no incisions or even any needles used. This ultrasound probe is used to both image the prostate and deliver the treatment.
How do you see HIFU playing a role in prostate cancer treatment over the next 10 years?
I see focal therapy in general becoming an option for more men in the next 10 years as more data supporting its use emerge and more providers become trained in the techniques. HIFU will definitely continue to be one of the main technologies used in prostate cancer focal therapy.
What does HIFU do?
HIFU uses focused, intense heat to destroy prostate cancer. Sound waves kill cancer cells without the use of radiation or incisions. HIFU also helps men avoid common side effects like urinary incontinence and erectile dysfunction. What to Expect During HIFU.
How long does it take for a PSA to go down after HIFU?
You need to take only a week off of work, if necessary. We check your PSA levels periodically. After HIFU, they should go down significantly and then remain stable with only slow rises for the rest of your life. We perform another biopsy six months after your treatment to make sure the cancer is gone.
How long does it take to urinate after HIFU?
After HIFU Treatment. After this prostate cancer treatment: You should not feel any pain from the treatment. You have to use a catheter (a long, thin tube) for three days to help you urinate due to swelling in your prostate. You need to take only a week off of work, if necessary.
What is the best treatment for prostate cancer?
IU School of Medicine physicists and engineers — with help from IU Health surgeons — pioneered HIFU treatment for prostate cancer in the 1990s.
How long does a HIFU last?
Ultrasound waves are the energy source, and high heat burns the cancerous tissues. HIFU procedures generally last two to three hours as outpatient procedures. During treatment, your physician:
Does HIFU work on prostate?
Focuses high-energy ultrasound waves on your prostate while monitoring the treatment area. As a targeted therapy, HIFU treats cancer only within your prostate, which minimizes side effects. Doctors can preserve the muscles, nerves and body structures responsible for nearby bodily functions.
Does HIFU treat prostate cancer?
As a targeted therapy, HIFU treats cancer only within your prostate, which minimizes side effects. Doctors can preserve the muscles, nerves and body structures responsible for nearby bodily functions.
Why is HIFU a good treatment for prostate cancer?
The reason why HIFU is a successful treatment option for prostate cancer us because it relies on first-hand visualization and real-time data. Guys must go through the entire diagnosis process before this procedure will receive a go-ahead from their treatment physician.
What is HIFU treatment?
The HIFU treatment procedure for prostate cancer allows doctors to adapt to what they find after their work begins . This setup makes it possible for the energy to stay focused on the exact location where it can provide the most help.
How does HIFU work?
Some guys even celebrate it by going out to dinner that same night. 7. The HIFU procedure uses clean energy to create results. Doctors can use this treatment for prostate cancer repetitively without causing additional damage to the surrounding tissues or organs as they would encounter with the traditional options.
What is HIFU ultrasound?
The high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) treatment for prostate cancer offers a non-invasive therapeutic technique which features non-ionizing ultrasonic waves that will heat tissues in the body. This process is useful when increasing the flow of blood or lymph fluid is necessary to create a positive impact on the cancer.
How long does it take for HIFU to work?
2. It doesn’t take long to produce the results that you want. The HIFU treatment option takes four hours or less to successfully deal with the prostate cancer.
How does radiation treatment work for prostate cancer?
5. It removes the risks of radiation from the treatment process. This treatment option for prostate cancer kills the cancer cells without needing to use radiation. That means you can kill all of the genetic material that causes the cells to multiply abnormally without irradiating them.
Is HIFU approved for prostate cancer?
1. HIFU is approved by the FDA for treatment of prostate cancer. Although the high-intensity focused ultrasound procedure was hanging in limbo for several years waiting for regulatory approval, it is now available to men in the United States when they receive a diagnosis of prostate cancer. There are two systems currently available ...
What is high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) for prostate cancer?
GBU: High-intensity focused ultrasound, or HIFU, is a minimally invasive way of delivering tissue ablation. HIFU uses ultrasound energy focused at a very high level to destroy tissue. And it's extremely precise.
Can you tell us a little more about HIFU's history?
GBU: The theory behind using energy goes back to shockwave lithotripsy for kidney stones. Scientists and physicians saw how focusing energy could break up kidney stones and wondered if it might be possible to use a different form of energy to destroy tissue, specifically cancer cells.
Who's a good candidate for HIFU?
GBU: Almost anybody is a good candidate. All prostate cancer can be treated with HIFU, although advanced cancers may require additional modalities or therapies. But no one is excluded except for the very few patients who have severe latex allergies or they have severe rectal wall thickening. But otherwise, everybody is a candidate.
Can you discuss HIFU for prostate cancer treatment: pros and cons?
GBU: One of the big benefits of HIFU is the precision in which the energy is delivered. The precision parallels that of a surgeon cutting out the tumor. Another benefit: with HIFU, we can opt to treat only a portion of the prostate gland. For example, if a patient has cancer localized on one side, we can leave the normal side alone.
Are there any downsides?
GBU: All procedures have potential complications. But complication rates with HIFU in European studies were very low. In the very early studies, there were definitely slightly higher rates as they were perfecting the machines, the first prototype.
Let's discuss the procedure itself
GBU: There's not a whole lot of preparation for HIFU. The patient would be prepared the day before with an enema. On the day of the procedure, the patient will undergo a general anesthetic, although they can opt for a spinal anesthetic. They go to sleep. They lie on their right side in a very comfortable position.
Discuss where Greater Boston Urology patients would receive HIFU treatment
GBU: The treatment takes place in our surgery center, an outpatient setting at the Eastern Massachusetts Surgery Center, which is located in Norwood. Everything is delivered right there.
