Hi Lindsay,
I hope you are happy that I address you by your Christian name which is the way many of us sign off on this forum. I would however, suggest you remove your surname in the interests of privacy. May I also suggest you restrict postings specifically regarding your husband to one thread. The reason for doing so is that it is easier for members to be able to see what has been previously said and comment more meaningfully, without seeking various bits of information spread over a number of threads. Furthermore, as these old threads fall out of use, the information gets lost over time. What is particularly useful is if details of a patient's histology and details as far as possible of his diagnosis, scans PSA, Gleason Score and Staging, number of cores taken with percentage of cancer in them are put under his Profile/Bio. If not known, this info should be obtainable through the patient's GP or Hospital Consultant. This again can be very helpful as members can more easily see how the particular patient is affected. Under the Bio, it would also be helpful to know what treatments options had been offered and any ruled out.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, none of us here are 'experts', these are your consultants in the hospitals but there is a lot of collective experience of PCa here, so you could say each of us contributes something to the forum, so more than will be known overall than to your GP.
As regards HIFU, I will paste a post I made for another potential recipient recently.
Posted 19 Oct 2020 at 23:17
Hi Benny,
There are pros and cons for all kinds of treatment and HIFU is no different in this respect. It is one of several treatments that come under the heading of Focal Therapy. It is a niche treatment mostly given in the UK as a salvage treatment for failed RT, although we have the partner on this forum whose husband had it (twice), as a treatment for another failed Focal Therapy FLA (Focal Laser Ablation) administered in the USA. A relatively small number of men in the UK have HIFU as a primary treatment if they meet the criteria. Cryotherapy is an even less used form of Focal Therapy administered in the UK. There is a more recent development of HIFU like treatment called TULSA-PRO which may prove better but it's early days, see http://www.profoundmedical.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Phase1ResultsPresentationFUS_London2015_pdf.pdf-
Although you are considering HIFU as a Primary treatment, you may be interested in the HIFU I had for failed RT as here https://community.prostatecanceruk.org/posts/t10960-HIFU--my-experience#post133611
I don't think that as a stand alone treatment HIFU is quite as effective as Surgery or Radiotherapy and long term outcomes including side effects are not yet so well known but the procedure is repeatable (providing the tumour is in a place within the Prostate on which the Ultrasound can focus) and where necessary HIFU can be followed either by Prostatectomy or Radiotherapy.
I recommend you download or obtain a copy of the 'Toolkit' from the Publications Dept of this forum https://prostatecanceruk.org/prostate-information/our-publications/publications/tool-kit?_ga=2.206109653.795867346.1564408880-1013787081.15644088
There was a study of HIFU called 'INDEX' carried out over 6 hospitals in the UK but they are no longer recruiting and if interested in this treatment I think your husband would be best advised to seek referral to UCLH (University College London Hospitals) who would be able to advise about whether there is anywhere this can be administered within the NHS or otherwise privately. The Pandemic may have a bearing on this.
Edited by member 09 Nov 2020 at 02:47
| Reason: to highlight links