Alan G., 55 years old

Patients must have access to information…
Alain G., March 2006
At 55 years of age, and with a hectic working life, I had a slight cardiac incident which encouraged me to pay more attention to my health. In January 2001, during a visit to my GP, I asked for a PSA test. Result: 15. Oral treatment for prostatic hypertrophy followed by an ultrasound scan with no notable nodules. I didn't see a urologist for another 6 months. A PSA of 25 and a biopsy confirmed the diagnosis I had been fearing.
In October 2001 I began 35 sessions of conformational radiotherapy. The trips to and from the clinic were very restrictive and tiring and the secondary effects were difficult to live with, but the treatment got results. The PSA Nadir (minimum reached) was achieved after 12 long months at 0.5. This was followed by check-ups every 4 months for almost 3 years.
Meanwhile, I was finding out about my illness and about treatments. I spoke to doctors and my friends and I surfed the Internet a lot. This was when I discovered the applications which use HIFU technology, treatment by focused ultrasound with the Ablatherm device. At the time, few care facilities had the device, not all GPs and urologists were aware of it … and weren't very happy to be asked questions about innovative techniques by their patients!
In November 2004, after a short period of remission, the results of my tests and a new biopsy showed up a relapse, meaning that my radiotherapy had failed and that further treatment was absolutely necessary. Radiotherapy was ruled out because secondary treatment is contra-indicated (unlike HIFU which enables a patient with a relapse to be treated again). My clinical case notes seemed to encourage a catch-up (or last chance…) treatment by focused ultrasound, for which the statistics showed very promising results.
I'm not sure that my doctor at the time would have prescribed me the treatment which saved my life if I hadn't requested it myself. You have to ask! The centre which usually treated me was supposed to take possession of a latest generated device, but the administration was slowing down the procedure. I then had to spend many long months waiting, until in desperation I went to see a hospital with an excellent reputation, which is a world pioneer in HIFU and at the cutting edge of this type of treatment.
After this everything moved very quickly. Examination, visit to the anaesthetist, 4 days in hospital then return home under my own steam where I lead a normal life.
The treatment, which takes around 2 hours, is carried out using a rectal probe under local anaesthetic. Personally I only suffered from a few light secondary effects, little pain and no tiredness.
I was treated in January 2006. Until last week I was still waiting for my final results, anxious but above all reassured that I was in the hands of an eminently capable and human specialist, who uses a modern technique which is a precursor to tomorrow's medicine and which surely therefore has a great future. My results arrived today (march 2006, 22nd): PSA at 0.01 and negative biopsies! In other words, the Ablatherm HIFU probably saved my life and now I can finally forget my prostate cancer once and for all.

My experience was that there were delays in my being taken care of, which is unacceptable when you're suffering from a serious illness. This technique based on the use of the Ablatherm device is available but too few patients have access to it. This is a crying shame! Especially when you know that this technique can save patients like me whose earlier treatments have failed, and that there are certainly too many people who don't have access to it because of a lack of information. I have seen that you must have the right information to be able to talk to doctors and access treatments like HIFU which have proven their effectiveness.