clipped from: www.dailyexpress.co.uk A PIONEERING treatment that blasts prostate cancer with sound waves can cure the disease without the need for invasive surgery, say researchers.
Men with early prostate cancer were given general anaesthetic and treated with high-intensity-focused ultrasound, which kills cancer cells.
The technique accurately zaps small amounts of tissue by heating it up to a temperature of between 80C and 90C.
It is so accurate that it can be used to treat the whole prostate gland or just the areas with cancer.
It means many patients could avoid conventional treatment like surgery and radiotherapy which treat the whole prostate and can carry the risk of side effects, including impotence, incontinence and bowel changes.
Prostate is the most common cancer among men in Britain with more than 30,000 new cases each year. In a study, the experimental HIFU therapy was used on 172 men whose cancer had not spread beyond their prostate.
