Evaluating safety for High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound for patients with localized prostate cancer

This study examined the efficacy of High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) as primary (main) treatment for patients with localized (confined) prostate cancer (PCa). 

Localized PCa is cancer confined to the prostate gland. Usually, standard treatment for this stage is surgery or radiotherapy. A newer treatment option for PCa patients is HIFU, which uses ultrasound (high-energy sound waves) to destroy cancer cells. When ultrasound energy is absorbed by diseased (cancer) tissue, these tissues heat up and die. 

This study included 1002 patients with localized PCa who were treated with HIFU between 1997 and 2009. 60% of patients received one HIFU session, 38% received two sessions, and 2% received three sessions. After approximately 8 years of follow up, disease-free survival (defined as the percentage of living men who were cured of the disease) was 76%, 63% and 57% for patients with low, intermediate and high risk of PCa recurrence (return of the cancer), respectively. The 10-years cancer-specific survival (defined as the percentage of people who have not died because of PCa 10 years after treatment) and overall survival (the percentage of patients who have survived for 10 years after treatment) were 97% and 80%, respectively. Also, the 10-years metastasis-free survival (defined as the percentage of patients without cancer spreading for 10 years after treatment) was 94%. Less than half (37%) of patients treated with HIFU required additional treatment (radiotherapy, hormonal therapy or chemotherapy) for PCa. The most common side effects were urinary problems, which were few and manageable.   

In summary, the authors of this study found that HIFU was an effective treatment option for patients with localized PCa, with encouraging survival rates and acceptable side effects.

However, this was a single arm study (meaning that these patients were examined without another group to compare the results with). This means that it is not possible to determine whether HIFU is more effective than other treatments directly from this study.

Ask your doctor if HIFU is a good treatment option for your situation.