A Huge Breakthrough in the Treatment of Prostate Cancer?
It's "Good News Only" day, and this is great news. A new ultrasound treatment for prostate cancer has shown "very encouraging" results in trials--and a significantly lowered risk of debilitating side effects:
It is hoped the new treatment, which involves heating only the tumours with a highly focused ultrasound, will mean men can be treated without an overnight stay in hospital and avoiding distressing side effects associated with current therapies such as incontinence and impotence.
A study has found that focal HIFU, high-intensity focused ultrasound, provides the 'perfect' outcome of no major side effects and free of cancer 12 months after treatment, in nine out of ten cases.
"It is uses a very tightly focused beam of soundwaves which vibrates tissue about the size of a grain of rice to about 80 or 90 degrees centigrade and that effectively kills the cells, but just in that area, " said Mr Ahmed, who led the Medical Research Council study.
"The side effect profile we found was very encouraging," he added.
"None of the men [treated] were incontinent and one in ten men were impotent after treatment."
Anyone else with good news to share on this thread?
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Comments:
Sep '11
Re: A Huge Breakthrough in the Treatment of Prostate Cancer?
Uh....
You've posted an article about a new form of scanning for prostate cancer--with a here's-how-it-works video.
I thought Ricochet avoided NSFW video....
Re: A Huge Breakthrough in the Treatment of Prostate Cancer?
John Murdoch: Uh....
You've posted an article about a new form of scanning for prostate cancer--with a here's-how-it-works video.
I thought Ricochet avoided NSFW video.... · 20 minutes ago
Come on. It shows nothing that should make anyone squeamish.
Re: A Huge Breakthrough in the Treatment of Prostate Cancer?
Had that been an actual prostate, as opposed to a bucket of water, I'd understand the objection. But it's a bucket of water. Totally SFW.
Nov '11
Re: A Huge Breakthrough in the Treatment of Prostate Cancer?
Here is a link to the TED lecture by Israeli engineer Yoav Medan, who, with his team, is the developer of the ultrasound technology described here. The procedure can also be used on brain lesions and on tumors in some other areas of the body.
Richard Veech at NIH has done some fascinating work on ketones and Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. His work has been taken up by Dr. Mary Newport.
Another intriguing proposal is found in the work of Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, a Russian physician practicing in the UK. She has offered the only explanation I have seen that makes sense of the rapid and frightening increase in autism, as well as other mental illnesses, and she also offers a potential cure if the child is treated before the age of five.
May '10
Re: A Huge Breakthrough in the Treatment of Prostate Cancer?
I think this is a good example of where Michael Ledeen's famous "Faster, please" can be applied.
It runs in my family (grandfather, two first cousins at least) and neighbors. Seeding works but at what cost?
Thanks for the link, Claire.
Dec '10
Re: A Huge Breakthrough in the Treatment of Prostate Cancer?
When I first saw the still-image, I thought it was a hand blender in a pot of soup and thought, "Chicken soup treats prostate cancer? Who knew?"
This is good news. More, please.
Jul '11
Re: A Huge Breakthrough in the Treatment of Prostate Cancer?
In the last decade we have begun individualizing many cancer cases to a watchful waiting status, unless younger, basically due to the potential and frequent side effects of surgery or radiation options. This was welcome news indeed when I saw it recently. It is hard for a man to cope with these side effects and the reduction in morbidity will be greatly felt. John Murdoch, I'm sensing you might have some anxious moments at your annual physicals.
Aug '10
Re: A Huge Breakthrough in the Treatment of Prostate Cancer?
If you read through the article, as I did carefully being of an age and gender where these things have become an unfortunate area of interest, you will see that they hope that within five years this could be offered through the Natl Health.
Does this mean that the treatment is already available in the US ?
Apr '11
Re: A Huge Breakthrough in the Treatment of Prostate Cancer?
Too late for us. I've been trying to hide this good news from my 68 year-old husband.
But, he's alive and cancer free and I celebrate this wonderful news for men who will be saved, and who will be spared the problems resulting from currently available treatments.
As a side note: We have a friend whose father practiced general surgery in a time when a small community surgeon would perform prostatectomies. He performed 3. All 3 men died.
We've come a very long way.
Sep '10
Re: A Huge Breakthrough in the Treatment of Prostate Cancer?
So, not completely avoiding those side effects.
But I'm not ungrateful. It certainly beats an agonizing death from cancer.
Dec '10
Re: A Huge Breakthrough in the Treatment of Prostate Cancer?
I am a urologist. This procedure is already widely available. Surgery and radiation remain the mainstay of curative treatment however, and, while side effects and complications occur, they are by no means a given. My concern lies in the idea that prostate cancer is "not serious'. It is usually slow growing but if aggressive, like other cancers, death from advanced prostate cancer is painful and slow. We have a hard time discerning which cancers will be more aggressive.
So HIFU is a neat, newer technology to treat prostate cancer in certain clinical situations. It will not, for the foreseeable future, replace current standards of care treatment.
Jul '11
Re: A Huge Breakthrough in the Treatment of Prostate Cancer?
Grimaud: I am a urologist. This procedure is already widely available. Surgery and radiation remain the mainstay of curative treatment however, and, while side effects and complications occur, they are by no means a given. My concern lies in the idea that prostate cancer is "not serious'. It is usually slow growing but if aggressive, like other cancers, death from advanced prostate cancer is painful and slow. We have a hard time discerning which cancers will be more aggressive.
So HIFU is a neat, newer technology to treat prostate cancer in certain clinical situations. It will not, for the foreseeable future, replace current standards of care treatment. · 3 hours ago
Young men who get this disease (40's 50's) are always asking about the latest and greatest. Nothing beats cold steel and I'll be astounded if that changes soon. Dad had a radical prostatectomy at 66 for a Gleason 7. Sill around.
I would see HIFU having a role in the 70 year old uncomfortable with watchful waiting on a Gleason 6 or an 80 year old requesting treatment because they feel 110 is their life expectancy. The radiation of all flavors is, as you know, not benign.
Dec '10
Re: A Huge Breakthrough in the Treatment of Prostate Cancer?
DocJay, we think alike. The newer IGRT external beam radiation is pretty nice and very precise for someone beyond surgical age. Very low side effects and comparable cure rates to 10 years. I still do open prostatectomies though there is a big shift toward robotic surgery. I think the lack of benefit and added cost may keep my skills in fashion for a while however.