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Dear YANA members. We have decided to go with the Hifu Sonoblade 500 to treat my husbands first stage prostate cancer gleason 6, but its so expensive. Does anyone know of any pleace to do this treament without the $25.OOO fee? Also any feedback regarding this treament and its outcomes would be helpful. Thank you,
Betsy Orman
The following article is the best I have seen on HIFU, it reviews all the latest data in an unbiased manner and excludes all the hype associated with this treatment.
http://www.prostate-cancer.org/pcricms/sites/default/files/PDFs/Is14-1_p14-20.pdf
In short the reoccurrance rate for HIFU is the highest among all the conventional treatments and increases with time. Many of the European countries that have used HIFU extensively are now backing off if favor of the mre conventional treatments.
JohnT
It is interesting that you posted when you did because I was going to be posting on this topic this week under the subject heading: “HIFU: The Wrong Road I Almost Took”.
My wife & I also looked into HIFU & initially found the information on the subject encouraging. We were pleased with the statistics regarding impotence, incontinence & recovery time when compared with other treatments; so much so that we were willing to go to Canada and pay the fee since our insurance would not cover it (The quote we got was somewhere between twenty & thirty thousand dollars).
I had gotten as far as talking to two HIFU centers on the phone when my ongoing research revealed the following disturbing statistic: The biochemical failure free rate FOR ALL AGE GROUPS was ONLY 73% after ONLY 5 years. In other words, 27% of those treated in all age groups had a recurrence of their cancer after only 5 years. (I wish I could remember what website I got this information from, but I do remember that it was on the site of one of the HIFU centers. I just had to dig deeper & get passed all of the positive information that they hit you with up front). Also, if you google “HIFU & Medscape”, you will be able to go onto a site which has study results that are even worse than the ones I reported. (A video is included on this site along with a written article on the subject).
I found out that the reason for these poor success figures is because HIFU uses high frequency ultrasound energy to heat and destroy cancer cells, raising the temperature of the targeted prostate tissue to 195 degrees Fahrenheit in 2-3 seconds. The problem with that is that the urethra passes through the prostate & in order to protect it, that area must be cooled. So, it is not subject to the same intense heat as the rest of the prostate, resulting in the very real potential of the cancer cells surviving in that area.
So, in closing, I urge you to do more research & dig deeper, looking into the results of studies done on the procedure. Compare the biochemical failure free rate to other treatments. You will find them to be far better than HIFU. As far as impotence & incontinence results are concerned, to use the option of radical prostatectomy (RP) as an example (since that is where my research lies), the statistics posted by the top surgeons are quite good. That is the key though. It is important that, if you are going to have RP, you find one of the best surgeons in the country to perform the procedure. If you have to spend more money to travel to his hospital for a consultation & subsequent surgery and stay in a hotel, in my opinion, it is well worth it in the long run. All in all, it is going to add up to a lot less than the cost of HIFU & your husband will likely be a lot better off. (Note: I am 55 & have personally been practicing AS for 4 years. I have yet to submit to any form of treatment).
Best wishes to the both of you in whatever you decide. I hope this has helped.
I found the 5 year study data that I wrote about earlier. If you cut & paste or type www.ukhifu.com/articles.htm into your browser, click on the corresponding website & once there, scroll down and click on “Five years experience of transrectal high-intensity focused ultrasound using the Sonablate device in the treatment of localized prostate cancer”, it will take you to the study published in the “International Journal of Urology”.
You will see that the 5 year biochemical disease-free survival rate was actually 78% for all 181 patients in the study. (While the publication is seven pages long, you can find the basics of the study right at the top under “Methods” & “Results”).
