A research project led by UCLH and UCL has discovered that an experimental therapy using sound waves may offer people with early stage prostate cancer an alternative treatment option.
The technique, called High Intensity Focused Ultrasound, uses sound waves to heat and kill cancerous cells. The study was led by Mark Emberton, UCLH clinical director for cancer services, and Dr Hashim Ahmed from University College London and the results were published in the British Journal of Cancer. A group of 172 men with prostate cancer that had not spread were treated under general anaesthetic with High Intensity Focused Ultrasound. Of the initial group, 159 men were followed up a year later and 92% did not have any recurrence of prostate cancer. Although this was not a comparative study, it would be expected that traditional treatments for early prostate cancer of surgery or radiotherapy would show a similar percentage of men showing no recurrence of their prostate cancer one year on. Less than one per cent had incontinence and 30% to 40% had impotence. None had any bowel problems. One year following the traditional treatments of surgery and radiotherapy it would be expected that 5% to 20% of patients would have incontinence and half have impotence. Radiotherapy can also cause side-effects such as diarrhoea, pain and bleeding in 5% to 20%. Peter Johnson, chief clinician at Cancer Research UK, said: “This technique needs careful evaluation to make sure that it can produce the same results as the proven treatments for early prostate cancer. If the treatment can be shown to have less side-effects then that will be excellent news, but more research is needed to show this. Cancer Research UK is funding a trial to look at this question and we hope that further studies can be carried out to compare High Intensity Focused Ultrasound to standard treatments.”
