Ultrasound prostate cancer device touted
May 26th, 2009 Posted in hifuA new ultrasound treatment for prostate cancer is showing promise of stopping the disease without causing impotence or incontinence, observers say.
The still-experimental treatment, called high-intensity focused ultrasound, uses the sonic technology to heat the prostate to the point of killing cancerous cells and reducing tumors without the high rates of impotence caused by current treatments such as radiation therapy or the removal of the prostate, The Austin (Texas) American-Statesman reported Sunday.
Some U.S. doctors, such as Austin urologist Richard Chopp, have been trained by a company that makes a device used in the procedure, International HIFU, to perform it in Mexico, where Chopp says he has done about a dozen such prostate operations since September.