Sound Waves Used to Treat Prostate Cancer

British doctors are testing a new treatment that uses the power of sound to kill prostate cancer.

They’re finding high-intensity focused ultrasound, or HIFU, destroys cancer cells without serious side effects.
HIFU is an exacting technique aiming sound waves at the prostate tissue, rapidly increasing tissue temperature, which destroys the cancerous lesions. To qualify for the clinical trial, participants must have recurrent prostate cancer after treatment with external beam radiation therapy. Initial screening visits will involve physical exams, blood tests and an ultrasound of the prostate.

That was important to prostate cancer patient Graham Cole. “It’s a very sensitive part of the anatomy, and hifu will deal with what needs to be done and only what needs to be done.”

Traditional treatments like surgery and radiation can damage healthy cells in and around the prostate leading to impotence and incontinence.

“The radical treatments that we have come with a significant amount of collateral damage,” said Dr. Richard Hindley of the North Hampshire Hospital in England.

HIFU uses a probe to focus ultrasound at the prostate.

High frequency sound waves reaching 212 degrees burn cancer cells. The urinary tube that runs through the prostate and nearby nerves needed for sexual function are not damaged.

British doctors have only tested this type of HIFU on 18 men.

So far it’s been much more effective than traditional treatments.

Now doctors in the U.S. are planning their own studies.

“In my opinion it’s the future,” said Dr. Thomas Polascik of Duke University Medical Center.

Researchers said accuracy was just the type of advance they need in treating prostate cancer.

Polascik said the goal would be to find and destroy cancer cells in the prostate without damaging the rest of the prostate.

Cole’s procedure took two hours and he was able to go home the very next day. His doctors are satisfied his cancer is gone.