High intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU)

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• HIFU for prostate cancer utilizes high-intensity focused ultrasound to ablate/destroy the tissue of the prostate. During the HIFU procedure, sound waves are used to heat the prostate tissue, thus destroying the cancerous cells. In essence, ultrasonic waves are precisely focused on specific areas of the prostate to eliminate the prostate cancer, with minimal risks of affecting other tissue or organs.

• Studies using HIFU machine have shown that 94% of patients with a pretreatment PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen) of less than 10 ng/mL were cancer-free after three years.

• HIFU was first used in the 1940s and 1950s in efforts to destroy tumors in the central nervous system. Since then, HIFU has been shown to be effective at destroying malignant tissue in the brain, prostate, spleen, liver, kidney, breast, and bone.

• HIFU is currently not approved for medical use in the United States. Current NCCN guidelines for the treatment of prostate cancer do not include HIFU as part of standard of care, though many promising clinical trials exist. Many patients have received the HIFU procedure at facilities in Canada, and Central, and South America.

Source: onlinelibrary

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