CBC take on HIFU....

Replicant · Moderator Joined: 01 Nov 2006 Posts: 744

There are differing criteria depending on treatment.

For example, men after radiation often never come close to less than 0.05, but have still have successful treatment.

For HIFU, the best results (as I understand the literature) are when men hit a nadir of less than or equal to 0.2 ng/ml within a few months of treatment. The success rate with a nadir like that is about 89%. See http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/118599855/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0 for an example, or google HIFU nadir 0.2 .

But some men also do well with higher PSA nadirs after HIFU, but the percentage drops off.

notme will correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe he did NOT have his prostate ablated, but rather had focal treatment. So there is healthy prostate still there that will always produce some PSA. I think that is the way Dr. Scionti does it. There's a guy on Yananow (RonT) who is very similar to notme, who had treatment by Scionti a month or two before not me, and who says that was the case with him as well.

But Putt, I take the general point you are making. The "cancer free" phrase bothered me, too, and I started to post a note last night but got too tired. It sounds like notme is confusing the 5 year biochemical freedom from progression rate of 90% for some men with "cancer free at 5 years" and the two are definitely NOT the same.

I also believe, and notme, please correct me if I'm putting words in your mouth, that notme has said that HIFU cured him. While I hope that is true, it is far too early to tell--as it is with most of us.

My PSA has been less than 0.1 for years now, but I would not say that I am cured or cancer free. I would say that I appear to be in total remission, and *possibly* cured. 5 years from now, if I am lucky enough to still have such a low PSA, I will still not say that I am cured.

Hope springs eternal, but it is still hope and not an established fact.
_________________
Replicant

Dx Feb 2006, PSA 9 @age 43
RRP Apr 2006 - Gleason 3+4, T2c, NXMX, pos margins
PSA 5/06 <0.1, 8/06 0.2, 12/06 0.6, 1/07 0.7.
Salvage radiation (IMRT) total dose 70.2 Gy, Jan-Mar 2007@ age 44
PSA 6/07 0.1, 9/07 (and thereafter) <0.1
http://pcabefore50.blogspot.com

notme · Guest

It's not "hope", it's optimism!

I won't be worrying about something I don't have, and if I ever "have it" I'm sure I'll be around, tail between my legs looking to Replicant and Hawk for guidance.

In the meantime, Dr. Scionti says he has a 94% success rate, and that to me, means cure. I think the world of that guy, what he must have gone through to do what he is doing, there must be a lot of opposition to him.....like I've found!

I haven't figured out what nadir is....and ablated or focal....???? don't know....just know HIFU works ~ read the brain HIFU story!

guess I named myself rightly, not me!! not you too (I hope)

Replicant · Moderator Joined: 01 Nov 2006 Posts: 744

Nadir means low point.
_________________
Replicant

Dx Feb 2006, PSA 9 @age 43
RRP Apr 2006 - Gleason 3+4, T2c, NXMX, pos margins
PSA 5/06 <0.1, 8/06 0.2, 12/06 0.6, 1/07 0.7.
Salvage radiation (IMRT) total dose 70.2 Gy, Jan-Mar 2007@ age 44
PSA 6/07 0.1, 9/07 (and thereafter) <0.1
http://pcabefore50.blogspot.com

notme · Guest

I still have a gland just no tissue in it, so it was totally ablated. But the PSA won't be to it's low point until 9 months after HIFU....I'll post my results....

We go to work everyday to improve our quality of life, this was the best money I ever spent.

If we sit around and wait it may be too late to do HIFU, as the success rate falls off, a 57% success rate for men in the "high risk" catagory vs a 90% in low risk --- and that's the clinical trials -- using an inexperienced doctor.

I wish everyone well.

Hawk · Senior User Joined: 22 Nov 2006 Posts: 406

The problem is that many men are high risk at diagnosis. This happens even when they stay on top of there physical exams.

On the other hand it is unlikely a person will BECOME high risk while consulting, researching, and deciding on a treatment.
_________________
History: PSA's 6.7 neg. biopsy - PSA 16.6 neg. biopsy - PSA's 8.2, 8.1, 8.7 - Biopsy. 4+4 Gleason 8. Lap RP Apr 2004, age 52 All neg margins, nodes, and structures. (T2a). Post RP PSA: every 6 mo. <.1 until Feb, 08 (46 mos) PSA .1 - I then got sensitive tests (all in 2008) showing:
Feb .06, May .09, Jun .10, Aug .10, Nov .15 -SRT

srtimmons · Posted: Wed Aug 19, 2009 4:41 am Post subject: be careful

Be careful of seeking a silver bullet for PC when one does not exist. There is no proof that HIFU works better than doing nothing at all in low grade PC.

Until it is proven otherwise, RP is still the gold-standard for PC treatment for organ-confined disease. I wish it weren't so, but it is. I wish something simple like HIFU or a pill would prove to be a silver bullet, but until LT studies are in, it is all wishful thinking.

What do studies show about rates of PC recurrence with HIFU?
_________________
Age 58
Dx 6/15/2009; PSA 7.1; 7/12 cores positive; Gleason 6 (3+3) and 7 (3+4); PNI observed. Bone Scan and CT scan negative. Robotic RP 7/20/2009

Path report 8/11/2009 - clean margins, negative lymph nodes, negative seminal vesicles, Gleason 3+4, Stage T2c; 15% of prostate involved; NoMx.

Post-RRP PSA: 9/09: .006

notme · Guest

I am so sorry that there are people out there who know nothing about HIFU and so continue to spread scare tactics, pessimists?

You are rid of the prostate after HIFU ~ just like surgery or radiation.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Most Americans go to Cancun in the winter to escape the cold, have fun in the sand and bake in the sun. But that is not what brought Richard and Diane Brightmire all the way from Denver.

Some Americans are traveling to Cancun for a cutting-edge procedure."I'm off to a hospital to improve my life," said Richard Brightmire, as he and his wife left their hotel at sunrise and loaded into a waiting van.

Brightmire, 61, has prostate cancer. He came to Mexico for medical treatment at a private hospital just 20 minutes from the beaches of Cancun — treatment that he can't get in the United States, even though it was developed there and is legal just about everywhere else in the world.

The treatment — called HIFU or high intensity focused ultrasound — literally burns the prostate and cancerous cells using focused ultrasound waves.

Europe, Canada, Japan, Mexico and many other countries have accepted the science behind HIFU, but the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has demanded lengthy scientific trials before the technology will be approved for use here.

After two years of holistic treatments, Brightmire's cancer hadn't gone away and his urologist in Denver told him it was too advanced to ignore. Brightmire didn't like the options his urologist offered, particularly the possible side effects and consequences of the procedures.

"They probably eliminate the cancer but you have to live in so many cases with the undesirable consequences," he said.

What Brightmire is talking about are some of the biggest fears facing men with prostate cancer. In eradicating the cancer, the prevailing therapies — surgical removal, radiation seeds, freezing and hormone therapy — can have devastating effects on urinary and erectile function.

HIFU is 21st-century medicine — no incisions, no blood and the entire procedure takes just a few hours.

"This is completely hands off, image guided," Suarez said as he prepared to insert an ultrasound probe inside Brightmire, who lay on the operating table under anesthetic. "Once I place the transducer into the patient, I should not need to touch the patient until I'm finished. Everything will be done by the computer."

Gradually, an ultrasound image of the prostate began to appear on the computer screen.

"What we're going to do is we're going to mark off the prostate area that we want to treat," Suarez said, explaining how he would use the computer to mark grids of 3-millimeter-wide lesions that would cover the entire prostate. "It'll burn off that region."

Suarez was quick to add that he was "not going to boil it to the point one would think of it. The idea is to kill the tissue and to kill the cancer. Both."

Burn by microscopic burn, the prostate — and they hope the cancer — will be killed. The ultrasound allows the doctor to identify and, in theory, avoid critical nerves and blood vessels.

It is a procedure that Patrick Walsh, a urologist at Johns Hopkins and one of the world's leading experts on prostate cancer, said he would never recommend to his patients.

"I think it's entirely experimental," Walsh said. "That any enthusiasm that's been engendered for it is really coming from the industry that makes the machine."

Walsh is referring to the Sonablate 500, the high-tech machine used to perform the procedure. Suarez has part ownership of the company that makes it.

But the enthusiasm is real, and it's easy to see why. Suarez claims his success in curing cancer is equivalent to that of conventional methods, but the real selling point is the claim that there are fewer side effects.

"Our goal is to treat this man, eradicate his cancer and return him to baseline function as far as sexual function, urinary function and rectal function," Suarez said.

It is the neurovascular bundles that control a man's erectile function. Suarez uses the ultrasound to identify them and avoid damaging them.

"I'll treat right up to the neurovascular bundle," he said. "And by not treating beyond the neurovascular bundle, I'll be able to perform a potency-sparing HIFU procedure and hopefully decrease the risk of erectile dysfunction in this patient."

It's not every day that you see a doctor bring a plate of fruit into an operating theater, but because this procedure does not require a sterile environment — there's no surgery happening here — Suarez thought some props would help us understand.

"I've had them bring in a grapefruit," he explained, pointing to a half grapefruit on a tray. "And if you took this grapefruit, and the outer part of the crust was a prostatic capsule [the shell of the prostate], what we're going to do with HIFU is we're going to create lesions across the prostate so that, in the end, the only thing that is left intact is the prostatic capsule or the skin of the grapefruit."

The possibility of a better outcome is why men like Brightmire are willing to travel to Mexico and spend $25,000 of their money on an experimental treatment.

Brightmire didn't want to wait, and he was willing to pay the steep price as well as the travel costs. Brightmire is no Palm Beach millionaire. He's a former Army helicopter pilot and a former National Park Ranger who dipped into his savings to pay for the treatment.

"I flew helicopters all my life and they needed maintenance and so I see the same is true for my body," he said the night before the operation. "And it costs a lot of money and time to keep a helicopter flying safely, so I do not mind putting the money into my body."

He added that "a lot of people worry about the expense, but I don't think you can put your money into anything better than yourself, your health."

An hour after the procedure was over, he walked out of the hospital holding his wife's hand. He said the day marked "a new beginning" with "no cancer."

That is certainly the hope. He's betting his life and $25,000 on it, and he will have to get tested regularly to know for sure.

A day after the procedure Richard and Diane Brightmire went for a walk on the beach. A stranger would have no idea that instead of coming to Mexico for some sun, Brightmire came to burn away his cancerous prostate.

After the treatment in early February, Brightmire reported that he had recovered quickly from the procedure, with no side effects. He has since had a follow-up PSA test that came back with a zero score, which is exactly what he was hoping for, *but it will take years to determine whether this unproven, 21st-century treatment leaves him cancer free for good.
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Story?id=4537744&page=1

* and those years won't be spent in pain or wearing pads.

Marathon Man · Regular Joined: 17 Jan 2008 Posts: 49 Location: Ireland

With notme continually pushing HIFU as the way to go and stressing the state of HIFU in Europe, wrt to Prostate Cancer treatment, I feel its time to put another viewpoint. Bear in mind that the vast majority of posters on this forum are US based (or so it seems to me) and are, rightly, primarily concerned with treatments available close to home.

In Europe, HIFU is classed as an "Experimental Local Treatment for Prostate Cancer". It is NOT a mainstream treatment in Europe, as expounded regularly here.

The European Association of Urology guidelines on Prostate Cancer are here: http://www.uroweb.org/fileadmin/tx_eauguidelines/2009/Full/Prostate_Cancer.pdf

This is a peer review of the state of PC treatment and is somewhat more balanced than most studies.

We all want to be "cured", but, when I was making my treatment decision, I wanted it "gone, gone, gone!" I know I wouldn't have been happy with HIFU without a proven long-term track record. In any case, with post surgery Gleason 4+4, I shouldn't have been a candidate for HIFU (even though pre-surgery biopsy Gleason was 4+3)

From the EAU Guidelines:
11.3 High-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU)
HIFU consists of focused ultrasound waves emitted from a transducer to cause tissue damage by mechanical and thermal effects as well as by cavitation (15). The goal of HIFU is to heat malignant tissues above 65 °C in order to destroy them by coagulative necrosis.

HIFU is performed under general or spinal anesthesia, with the patient in the lateral (Ablatherm®) or supine (Sonablate® 500) position; the procedure is time-consuming, with about 10 g prostate tissue being treated in one hour. In a recent review, 150 papers related to HIFU were identified and evaluated with regard to various oncological and functional outcome parameters (12). No controlled trial was available for analysis, and no survival data were presented. No validated biochemical, surrogate end-point was available for HIFU therapy.

11.3.1 Results of HIFU in PCa
As with CSAP, it appears to be difficult to interpret oncological outcome in patients undergoing HIFU since various PSA thresholds are defined and no international consensus exists on objective response criteria. The results of HIFU are limited, with outcome data from fewer than 1000 PCa cases having been published in the literature.

According to the recent review paper mentioned above (12), HIFU showed progression-free survival (based on PSA +/- biopsy data) of 63-87% (projected three- to five-year data), but median follow-up in the studies ranged from 12-24 months only.

In one of the largest single-centre studies, 227 patients with clinically organ confined PCa were treated with HIFU and their outcome data were analysed after a mean follow-up of 27 months (range = 12-121 months) (16). The projected five-year biochemical disease-free survival was 66%, and or only 57% if patients had exhibited a pre-therapeutic PSA value of 4-10 ng/mL. Incontinence and bladder neck stricture decreased over time from 28% and 31% to 9% and 6%, respectively. In one of the studies (17), a significant decrease in pre-treatment PSA serum levels from 12 ng/mL to 2.4 ng/mL was observed. However, 50% of the 14 patients demonstrated positive prostate biopsies during follow-up. In another study (18 ), a complete response rate defined by PSA < 4 ng/mL and six negative biopsies was achieved in 56% of the patients.

Summarising the efficacy results of a European multicentre study comprising the data of 559 patients with mainly low- and intermediate-risk PCa, Thüroff et al. (18 ) reported on a negative biopsy rate of 87.2% in 288 men with a follow-up of at least six months. A PSA nadir after six months follow-up could be determined in 212 patients, and it was as high as 1.8 ng/mL. However, it could be demonstrated that the PSA nadir might be reached at 12-18 months following the initial procedure.

Blana et al. reported on 146 patients undergoing HIFU with a mean follow-up of 22.5 months (19). The mean PSA level at initiation of therapy was 7.6 ng/mL; the PSA nadir achieved after three months was 0.07 ng/mL.
However, after 22 months the median PSA level was 0.15 ng/mL. Of the 137 men available for analysis, 93.4% demonstrated a negative control biopsy. The PSA nadir appears to be strongly associated with treatment
failure (20) (p < 0.001). Patients with a PSA nadir of 0.0-0.2 ng/mL have a treatment failure rate of only 11%, compared with 46% in patients with a PSA nadir of 0.21-1.00 ng/mL, and 48% with a PSA nadir of >1.0 ng/mL.
Recently, the group updated its results, with a total of 163 men treated for clinically organ-confined PCa. Within 72 Update march 2009 the 4.8 +/- 1.2 years of follow-up, the actuarial disease-free survival rate at five years was 66%, with salvage treatment initiated for 12% of the patients (21).

11.3.2 Complications of HIFU
Urinary retention appears to be one of the most common side-effects of HIFU, developing in almost all patients, with the mean interval of catheterisation via a suprapubic tube varying between 12 and 35 days (15-
17). Grade I and II urinary stress incontinence occurs in about 12% of patients. Subsequent TURP or bladder neck incision to treat subvesical obstruction is common, and is sometimes even performed at the time of HIFU. Post-operative impotence will occur in approximately 55-70% of patients.

MM

PS back for next tests/review 19th Sept - fingers crossed but everything is going fine - even back to winning ways an occasional M55 category race prize!
_________________
Marathon Man

PSA May 06, then 6 monthly; 4.3-4.9-6.8, Dx Feb 2008, PSA 9.4 @age 54 - Biopsy Gleason 4+3
RRP 22 May 2008 - Gleason 4+4, Tumour Vol 5%, T2a, N0M0, Negative Margins. Aug 08, PSA <0.01, Feb 09 <0.02, Sep 09 <0.02

http://prostaterunner.blogspot.com/ Irregularly updated & months behind!

notme · Guest

If I weren't here "pushing HIFU" then no one would know about HIFU as another option. Even with the trials, they only accept you if you ask about them. How can we ask when no one has heard of HIFU? How does one google HIFU if they haven't heard of it?

As my doctor told me after my HIFU, "there is a learning curve to this, I feel badly about my first dozen patients".

There was a 40% redo on Albatherm patients as it is only capable of getting a small gland, up to 25cc, as the machine is pre-set and robotic. This is the reason the US clinical trials, using Ablatherm, turn away men wiith glands over 25cc. In Europe, they always give a TURP to reduce the gland size, prior to HIFU with Ablatherm, TURPs can cause scarring and incontinence.

The Sonablate is manually operated using a computer mouse and watching real time a 3-D image on the screen so that the entire gland is gotten.

Some doctors don't instal a supra pubic catheter, this inexperience can cause urethral strictures. Not adaquately cooking the gland can also cause urethral strictures....important to get a well experienced or trained doctor.

Clinial trials will not accept experienced doctors, therefore there are some bad data coming out of them--in Europe, as I haven't heard any troubles from the USA trials, I've spoken to a guy who is in a NY trail and he couldn't be happier.

In the case of the UK trial using 172 men the doctor said, “Most of the [occurrences of retained debris or stricture] were clustered to the early part of the series at the beginning of our learning curve”

Note now that … as I have said before … the technology is liable to be much less critical than the skill and experience of the individual who is using it!

I would also like to add that I've found no ED occurances in men who used Cialis 10mg everyday for a month or more (until one feels all is well) to keep the blood flowing. And so, I can't help but wonder if the cases of ED aren't from men who weren't prescribed Cialis as a blood flow stimulator, and if ED is found using ultrasound, what must be the rate after surgery or radiation?

I also wanted my cancer "gone, gone gone!", but I didn't want to risk my quality of life. I feel I got both, we'll all get to keep appointments with the vampire, mine is in Sept as well....

HIFU was invented for prostate cancer in 1941 in Indiana, just think if someone like me had stayed on topic where we could be today.

Marathon Man · Regular Joined: 17 Jan 2008 Posts: 49 Location: Ireland

notme,
I know you mean well, but I'm uncomfortable at HIFU being proposed so strongly as an option, particularly when so many here are in the high risk category, because of the lack of long term figures and also when some recent studies have thrown up apparent problems.

This is a post of yours from a while back and you've posted several other times suggesting along the same lines.

[quote="notme"]another site told me it is the trusted norm for men in Europe ~ with a 94% success rate....for the last 16 years.
[/quote]

In the English study you quote, the conclusions were:

"HIFU is a minimally invasive, day-case ablative technique that can achieve good biochemical outcomes in the short term with minimal urinary incontinence and acceptable levels of erectile dysfunction. Long-term outcome needs further evaluation and the inception of an international registry for cases treated using HIFU will significantly aid this health technology assessment."
The follow up was 759 days max. One cannot extrapolate long term from that.

As I said in a previous post, you come across as pushing HIFU as a 'magic bullet' It isn't.

Every time someone posts information that casts even the vaguest doubts on HIFU, you seem to sidestep their information and post, as in the London study, another reference that doesn't address the previous posts and 'muddies the waters.'

You have in several instances, suggested that HIFU is the norm in Europe, when it is not - and the two year study that you reference, which began in 2005, certainly does not have any validity as long term indicator.

In Europe, HIFU, in spite of 16 years or so of development use, is an "Experimental Local Treatment for Prostate Cancer"
_________________
Marathon Man

PSA May 06, then 6 monthly; 4.3-4.9-6.8, Dx Feb 2008, PSA 9.4 @age 54 - Biopsy Gleason 4+3
RRP 22 May 2008 - Gleason 4+4, Tumour Vol 5%, T2a, N0M0, Negative Margins. Aug 08, PSA <0.01, Feb 09 <0.02, Sep 09 <0.02

http://prostaterunner.blogspot.com/ Irregularly updated & months behind!

John M · Experienced user Joined: 27 Jul 2009 Posts: 59

Because of notme's posts, I've done some reading on HIFU. To his credit, I knew nothing about it prior to reading his posts. This reading suggests the following:

1. HIFU is available in several countries, but its use around the world is very limited.
2. It can cause urinary incontinence and ED. Its advocates say that this is less than other treatments, but this has yet to be demonstrated in direct randomized controlled trials.
3. Although efforts can be made with HIFU to eradicate as much prostate tissue as possible, the anatomy of the prostate, as well all know, is complicated, with a key structure, the urethra, running through it, and nerves and blood vessels just outside it. It's hard to believe that you could burn every single prostate cell (as notme says in his posts) without also damaging these structures and increasing the risk of urinary problems and ED.
4. Any treatment for prostate cancer needs to have scientifically sound evidence that it works. Since many people with prostate cancer do well, with no symptoms for many, many years, the best way to do this is with a controlled study where patients are randomly placed in an active survelliance group (control group) or a treatment group. It's true, as Notme has said, that some treatments for PC don't meet these standards, but do we really need another unproven treatment? Anyone who really wants HIFU, and has early PC, should try to enroll in a clinical trial, not fly to Mexico or Japan and shell out thousands of dollars.
5. Comments that HIFU isn't approved because of some conspiracy of the FDA to defend the financial interests of the medical industry are not accurate. HIFU is also marketed by those who make money off of it. What we need is for the FDA to have high standards for ALL PC treatments, not to lower the standards to license more treatments without adequate evidence of safty and effectiveness.
_________________
John

notme · Guest

John said:
"Because of notme's posts, I've done some reading on HIFU. To his credit, I knew nothing about it prior to reading his posts." Very Happy

You have me right here saying it was totally safe, no pain, no downtime, no hospital stay, peed quite nicely with the catheter clamped off in 4 days....and we had sex just this AM, I am hornier than ever before, because I know how lucky I am.....and I have emails from several men saying the same. One is a guy who had HIFU some 8 years ago. Three are buddies who live right here where I live.

There are problems with surgery and radiation, that we all know for sure.

We are all adults...people can decide themselves.

Soon ~ I will tire of this time I spend on the internet....probably right after my next PSA test...

johnT · Senior User Joined: 27 Apr 2009 Posts: 177

All the data suggests that the success rate of all local treatments for low grade non agressive PC are about equal, including cryosurgery and targeted focal therapy; the only difference is the side affects one is will to accept.
Individuals have different needs, some just want their PC gone at any costs and choose surgery. Others research diligently and choose Proton Radiation because of it's limited side affects (not proven). Others chooses Brachytherapy because of it's ease and limited side affects. Others will choose HUIF and go to a foreign country and pay out of pocket for treatment.
All of us has his own reasons and attempt to justify them, this is called "cognitive dissossance"; it's a marketing term that means that an individual is constantly trying to justify his own decision and convince others that he is right.
The bottom line is that everything works and if anyone thinks there is only one way to treat PC he should examine his own motives.
When it comes to treating agressive or intermediate grade PC the treatment options are greately reduced and the success rate will depend on choosing the best option tailored to your individual PC.
JohnT
_________________
psa at diagnosis 40 in nov-08
gleason 6 and 7
Treatment choice seeds and IMRT

Jean222 · Senior User Joined: 14 Dec 2008 Posts: 249

Hi,

I've been reluctant to join in, as I obviously do not have prostate cancer.

BUT, there is also something that has not been discussed yet and that is the ability of the body to 'heal itself'.

Mother Nature can be very unpredictable and although I have no knowledge of this happening with HIFU, I do know that *sometimes* ablated tissue regenerates for no apparent reason.

I know of two people whose ablations were not permanent, although cauterized thoroughly by very proficient doctors.

One was a cardiac ablation, the other a cauterization of 'reproductive tissue'. All soft tissue, similar in many ways to that found in the prostate.

If one chooses to have surgical removal of cancerous tissue, it cannot regenerate.

If one has radiation, it cannot regenerate.

But with any form of ablation it is possible and although uncommon, can be found in medical literature.

Just something else to consider when choosing a form of treatment, IMO.

Noting the phrases used by Dr. Lawrence Klotz in the article, "seems to be" and "is", are not the same in medical parlance. This would indicate that he too, although very optomistic, is withholding final judgement.
And I can assure you, Dr. Lawrence Klotz is no rookie or just starting a 'learning curve' with HIFU. He works alongside Dr. Nam who is treating my husband.

Best wishes, as always,

Jean

channelsurferdude · Regular Joined: 21 Jun 2009 Posts: 12

Found this while searching HIFU...

The Association of Italian Urologists (AURO) has recommended High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) as a standard of care for the treatment of prostate cancer as part of the Association's new guidelines on prostate cancer diagnosis and therapy.

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS176423+08-Apr-2009+GNW20090408

Somebody thinks this is a good thing. Why is HIFU the only modality that has had to go through clinical trials? or is that not true?

I think it is important that we discuss all modalities, and Notme's enthusiasm for his success is good. I think when somebody buys a Toyota and is pleased with the car, it is normal to tell others about their good fortune. Hey you should buy a Toyota cuz I got one and I love it. Notme is just saying that.

It is up to us all to do the research. I would have never known about HIFU unless I saw it as an alternative treatment option discussed by Dr. Andrew Weil, at the University of Arizona. For some, it seems HIFU is a viable option. This is all so difficult for all of us, because it is one of the few diseases where the patient is left to decide which treatment to use.

You have to do the research and then decide what is best for you. If the best thing for me is going to Mexico or Nassau for a treatment that I believe will work...so be it. But I think that all options should be put on the table so that at least you are able to do the research and decide.

All modalities have successes and horror stories. That is what is really scary. I pray we all make the right choice and we all find the success we are looking for. Peace to all my brothers in this battle we never wanted to engage in. I pray for us all.

[/url]

	Cancer Forums Forum Index -> Prostate Cancer Forum	All times are GMT - 5 Hours Goto page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4 Next
Page 2 of 4

A website for discussions about any type of cancer, including lung cancer, breast cancer, mesothelioma, prostate cancer, laryngeal cancer, leukemia, lymphoma, multiple myeloma and others