A testimonial from Institute of Cancer Research

Gail ter Haar, Head of Therapeutic Ultrasound, Institute of Cancer Research:Royal Marsden Hospital, Sutton, Surrey, UK :

"HIFU is a simple, but elegant, technique that allows the selective destruction of a tumour without doing any damage to the other tissues that lie around it. A high intensity focused beam of ultrasound is unique in the way it can selectively kill cancer cells that lie in the targeted region. The way it works is similar to the way in which many of us, as children, used a magnifying glass in the sun to set fire to a dry leaf. It caught light only when the circle of light produced by the lens was at its tightest – when the focus was actually on the leaf, which in this case is the “target”. One advantage of using HIFU for treating prostate cancer is that it is simply an extension of the diagnostic procedure that a patient has anyway – trans-rectal ultrasound imaging (TRUS). This is currently one of the best ways of looking at the prostate. The Ablatherm device is essentially one of these imaging probes to which a treatment source has been added. Apart from the highly localised and precise nature of the treatment, HIFU has other advantages over other treatment options. Since there is no surgery, recovery is rapid. The procedure is simple, and the hospital stay is short. Since no radiation is involved, the treatment can if necessary be repeated, and can be used when other methods have failed. Many years of technical and clinical development have gone into this technique and it has now reached a level of maturity that allows it to be used with confidence in the knowledge that it is safe and effective."

The Ablatherm-HIFU treatment is now available in the Royal Marsden Hospital.