When Kitty Smith, of Christiansburg, Virginia, learned her 9-year-old cocker spaniel, Maddi Lynn Grace, had been diagnosed with a soft tissue sarcoma on her left front leg earlier this year, she knew right away that she would take her beloved companion to the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech for treatment.
Smith’s swift decision was informed by prior experience with the high-quality specialty care at the college’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital.
A slower-acting cancer than others, many older men (65+) choose not to seek treatment to avoid the often-harmful after-effects of surgery or radiation. However, younger men (40+), have little choice but to accept treatment, or face early death. In development for several years, HIFU offers hope where traditional surgical methods have left men scarred physically and mentally. A robotics-based device using focused sound waves to heat and destroy cancerous tissue in the prostate, many patients are able to eradicate prostate cancer without suffering the after-effects of traditional treatment (which can include erectile dysfunction and incontinence).
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Destroying part of the prostate to treat prostate cancer may be just as effective as removing the entire organ, but without many of the distressing side effects that tend to accompany the more invasive operation, according to investigators in the United Kingdom.
Based on the results of a feasibility study, the researchers are moving forward with a randomized controlled trial that will compare partial prostate ablation with radical prostatectomy in patients with intermediate-risk prostate cancer, according to a presentation at the American Urological Association’s 2017 Annual Meeting, held in May in Boston.
In partial ablation, the portion of the prostate gland containing the tumor is destroyed through one of several types of “focal therapies,” while the rest of the organ is left intact. In the feasibility study, investigators used high-intensity focused ultrasound to achieve partial prostate ablation. In the randomized trial, they hope to also include cryotherapy (freezing), focal brachytherapy (radiation) and vascular targeted photodynamic (light-activated) therapy.
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INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Cancer impacts hundreds of thousands of people each year. The CDC estimated from 2010 to 2020 there will be an increase in some cancers. One of those is prostate cancer.
The American Cancer Society states that about one in seven men will get prostate cancer at some point in their life.
A doctor in Indianapolis has been using advanced technology to treat his prostate cancer patients.
It is called HIFU and short for high intensity focused ultrasound. It was approved by the FDA to be used in the U.S. back in 2015.
HIFU focuses high energy ultrasound to a certain area to destory that area of tissue. It is similar to the way a magnifying glass would be used to focus sunlight to heat an area.
ORLANDO, Fla. - Other than skin cancer, prostate cancer is the most common cancer in American men. However treating it can lead to unwanted side effects, which is what Walt Parks wanted to avoid.
"I knew that I had to find something that would not put me down and keep me bringing in an income," he said.
Parks is a massage therapist and fitness instructor. When he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, he knew traditional treatments like surgery and radiation were not for him.
Parks opted for a treatment called High intensity focused ultrasound, also known as HIFU. It was approved in the United States two years ago and for that reason, it's still relatively unknown.
March 3, 2017 | Tom Harton
Good things take time, especially in health care.
A treatment for prostate cancer that became available at Indiana University Health about a year ago was 20 years in the making. But it was worth the wait, thanks largely to the efforts of Dr. Michael O. Koch, who has been pursuing the use of high-intensity focused ultrasound, or HIFU, for the treatment of prostate cancer since shortly after he arrived at IU to chair its urology department in 1998.
Koch, 60, learned about HIFU from Naren Sanghvi, who at the time was an IU School of Medicine professor studying the technology. HIFU was being explored as a treatment for benign enlargement of the prostate, but Koch thought treating highly localized prostate cancer would be a better use for it and embarked on a journey that resulted in the treatment’s receiving U.S. Food & Drug Administration approval in October 2015.
Alexandra Lebenthal, the president and CEO of municipal bond company Lebenthal & Co., has lived with essential tremor since she was 3 years old. It's made daily tasks like taking a sip of coffee a much more complicated task.
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For this month's cancer awareness campaign Urologist and Prostate cancer expert Dr. Michael Lazar provides an overview of prostate cancer screening options, helping to empower men to make smart choices.September is Prostate Cancer Awareness Month giving light to a very important health topic among men and their families. Second only to skin cancer, prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men in the USA and the second most common cause of cancer related death, lung cancer taking the number one spot. Currently it is estimated that one man in seven will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during his lifetime.
August 18, 2016, by Debby Knox, Updated at 11:36am, August 18, 2016
“When you focus the energy like that, it creates heat and destroys whatever area it’s focused on,” says Dr. Mike Koch, the chairman of the urology department at the IU School of Medicine."
Over 230,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer every year. For those who need treatment, but want to reduce the side effects, there is a new tool being used at IU Health hospitals. It’s called HIFU or high intensity focused ultrasound.