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HIFU for prostate cancer treatment

If you are a man, or you have a husband, a dad, brothers or a boyfriend, you need to read this. 

More than 230,00 new cases of prostate cancer are diagnosed each year in the U.S.A. alone. Prostate cancer is the second highest cause of cancer death in men, with lung cancer the first.

Before the prostate specific antigen test was deveoped, nearly three quarters of prostate cancer patients were diagnosed in the later stages and therefore were uncurable. Now, advanced cancer is only found in about one quarter of newly diagnosed cases.

High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) is a state of the art prostate cancer treatment technology.  It uses an ablatherm technique that involves using ultrasound to destroy deep-seated prostate cancer tissue with pin point accuracy.

High Intensity Focused Ultrasound sends soundwaves to a very specific area. This raises the temperature in the local zone and the heat destroys cancerous tissue. High intensity focused ultrasound also reduces common side effects like impotence and incontinence.

It is an out patient procedure that takes one to three hours .  It is a one time procedure and a spinal epidural is used. High intensity focused ultrasound doesn’t incorporate  radiation, so subsequent treatments can be carried out if necessary with no risk of damaging healthy tissue. It can also be used when other prostate cancer treatments don’t work.

High intensity focused ultrasound has proven advantages over past treatments for prostate cancer, and other prostate diseases.

To find out if you qualify for HIFU, you will need a detailed medital history that includes a recent PSA, Gleason score, prostate size and volume, the treatment strategy your physican has prescribed so far and any other medical information that may be relevant.