Key Points
- Two recent studies investigated focal therapy for low- and intermediate-risk prostate cancer.
- One study reported similar outcomes between focal therapy versus radical prostatectomy after eight years.
- Another focal ablation trial treated 44 men with intermediate risk disease under MRI guidance.
The results from two different prostate studies examining the benefit of focal therapy over whole-gland treatment for low- and intermediate-risk cancer were recently published.
In “Focal Therapy Compared to Radical Prostatectomy for Non-Metastatic Prostate Cancer: A Propensity Score-Matched Study,” researchers at Imperial College London compared oncological outcome data between patients receiving focal therapy versus radical prostatectomy and found them to be similar up to eight years after treatment. Of the focal therapy cohort, the majority of patients were treated with SonaCare Medical’s Sonablate HIFU device. The research was published in Nature’s Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases.
See SonaCare’s Press Release >
Another trial investigating focused ultrasound for focal ablation of the prostate was conducted in various sites in Toronto, and the results were recently published in Radiology. This trial – “MRI-guided Focused Ultrasound Ablation for Localized Intermediate-Risk Prostate Cancer: Early Results of a Phase II Trial” – enrolled 44 men with intermediate risk disease and performed transrectal focal ablation under MRI guidance. Ninety-three percent of patients had no clinically significant prostate cancer five months after treatment.
See Radiology’s Press Release and Media Coverage in Diagnostic Imaging >