A new non-invasive treatment for prostate cancer is “the biggest change in 20 years” and can prevent surgery-related side effects, a new study has found.
Researchers at Imperial College London studied the results of more than 500 patients receiving treatment – called focal therapy – to monitor its effectiveness.
Prostate cancer is the most common form of cancer among men in the UK, with around 48,500 new cases each year, and traditional treatments come with life-changing side effects, including sexual dysfunction and incontinence.
Focal therapy uses ultrasound or cryotherapy to specifically target cancer cells in the prostate gland without damaging the surrounding tissue.
The team says that hospitals will also benefit, because the treatment can be administered in an autonomous area, and most patients can recover at home.
However, the treatment comes at a high price, the specialized cars costing around 500,000 pounds.
Researchers at Imperial College London studied the results of more than 500 patients receiving treatment – called focal therapy – to monitor its effectiveness. Image: Stock
While focal therapy has been privately available on the NHS for several years, only 0.5% of prostate cancer patients use it.
This is due to the fact that few public hospitals are equipped to administer the new treatment and doctors have remained skeptical due to the lack of long-term data.
Researchers at Imperial College have gathered enough evidence to support what has been described as “the biggest change” in the treatment of prostate cancer in the last 20 years.
Lead author Dr. Matt Winkler said: “As a prostate cancer surgeon, I know all too well the devastating impact of erectile dysfunction or urinary incontinence on the lives of many men after prostate cancer surgery.
We are proud to provide colleagues and affected men with information that can make it easier to avoid radical removal of the prostate or radiation therapy.
There are two types of focal therapy depending on the size and location of the tumor in the prostate – a small gland that is under the bladder.
One uses a high-intensity ultrasound (HFIU) to heat the cancerous tissue to millimeter accuracy, while the other uses cryotherapy to cool it.
420 patients who were treated with HIFU and 81 with cryotherapy and in both cases the risk of sexual dysfunction and incontinence was much lower than in the case of traditional treatments.
Professor Hashim Ahmed, an expert in prostate cancer at Imperial, said that focal therapy leads to ten-fold reductions in urine leakage and sexual problems.
Importantly, for the first time I showed that he has a similar control of cancer at radical prostatectomy, five to eight years after treatment, he added.
Focal therapy specifically targets cancer cells in the prostate gland without damaging the surrounding tissues, allowing those treated to lead a normal life. Stock image
While focal therapy is not suitable for all patients, there are thousands each year that are appropriate and should be fully informed about it.
Equipping the NHS to provide focal therapy for every person who chooses this option is the next hurdle, the researchers say.
In an effort to overcome this challenge, the charity Prost8 UK has launched a campaign to fund six new focal therapy suites at hospitals across the country.
Each suite costs £ 500,000, which is much less than the millions needed for surgical and radiation therapy equipment.
Prost8 founder Paul Sayer chose focal therapy when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2018, at the age of 62, and said “I am almost unchanged from my pre-cancer self”.
“Therefore, I am now led to make sure that as many men as possible know about focal therapy and, more importantly, can access it when needed.”
The findings could improve the quality of life for the 12,000 men who are diagnosed with prostate cancer early each year and 10,000 who return for treatment after radiation therapy.
Promoting focal therapy when possible would also free up hospital beds, which were few during the pandemic, researchers say.
Dr Winkler said: “After diligent data collection over the past 10 years, we can now provide, for the first time, comparative evidence of equivalent cancer control rates of up to five to eight years.”
“Although our method does not provide the highest level of evidence, a randomized controlled trial is just as good as it is at the moment.”
The findings were published in the journal Nature.