HIFU: A doctor’s view
At Guy’s Hospital, through charitable support, we run a comprehensive prostate cancer centre. Our aim is to fit the treatment to the patient, not the patient to the treatment. The prostate cancer service is made up of a multi-disciplinary team including a pathologist, radiologist, specialist nurses, clinical oncologists and surgeons.
The introduction of HIFU to our service filled the gap we had to treat men who had recurrent diseases following previous radiotherapy. Surgery following radiotherapy is a notoriously challenging treatment for patient and surgeon. HIFU is our alternative to that. It is not without its risks but thanks to technical developments it has a good safety profile.
For newly diagnosed men who are unwilling, unfit or unsuitable for surgery or radiotherapy, HIFU is a promising option. HIFU in this group of men has the advantage that it may be repeated or can be followed by radiotherapy if any cancer remains.
At the Guy’s Prostate Cancer Centre we have treated twenty men to date. We are convinced that the treatment is effective in well selected men. Unlike radical surgery that may take 100 cases to master the complex technique, these few cases have been enough to learn this computer/robotically driven technology.
Declan Cahill, Consultant Urological Surgeon, Guy’s Hospital, London.
back: HIFU: My Story |