Another two cases of prostate cancer have been successfully treated with a third-generation robotized apparatus for high intensive focused ultrasound therapy – HIFU. Medicus Alpha Clinic is the only in Bulgaria to offer patients with early stage prostate cancer the option for non-surgical removal of the prostate gland.
HIFU (High Intensive Focused Ultrasound) is an innovative technology for treatment of prostate cancer. The method employs partial or total destruction of the gland which leads to removing it without surgery. This method has been actively applied for prostate cancer in the last decade worldwide, and the results show that its efficiency is completely comparable, and lately even surpassing, the outcomes of the surgical procedures for radical prostate gland removal, either mini-invasive or open surgery type. At the same time, the high intensive focused ultrasound method bears significant advantages:
Minimized risk of post-surgery incontinence – less than 5 %, against 50% in the surgical methods;
Sparing the erectile function, which normally is sacrificed in 50% of the patients undergoing surgical treatment;
Short hospitalization period – from 2 to 4 days;
Quick recovery – by two hours after the procedure patients can start moving, and the complete recovery of fitness to work is achieved within a week.
“HIFU technology applied in treatment of prostate cancer is yet to spread faster, now that it has been adopted as a standard procedure in the USA and Europe. This method has undisputed advantages for the patients and is more and more often used in prostate cancer treatment”, Dr. Aurel Iovitsu – a leading specialist in the producer company, explained during the installation of the latest (the third) generation equipment – Sonablate 500, which replaced the previously used apparatus at Medicus Alpha Clinic.
Medicus Alpha Clinic is the only in Bulgaria to provide non-surgical treatment of prostate cancer, applying high intensive focused ultrasound. The clinic team has a seven-year experience with over 100 patients treated with this therapy. “The robotized apparatus operates through a specialized transducer for transrectal approach to the prostate gland, and no need of incisions. The prostate gland is destroyed by the focused ultrasound transmission that heats the tissues, including the tumor, up to 105°C and destroys them millimeter by millimeter”, says Dr. Rangel Starev, a leading urologist in the HIFU program at the clinic. “The challenge in this method is in the selection of patients, who must be diagnosed in the early stages of the disease, not exceeding specified limits of the PSA values and the histology score by Gleason. In this respect we are again the only privileged medical establishment in Bulgaria to use the most secure prostate biopsy method – HistoScanning TT. This is a technology with which through specialized software the altered tissue within the gland is detected and the precise location and cancer stage is identified even in the earliest stage – in situ. We feel professionally proud that thanks to those two technologies we can provide the earliest possible diagnostics and 100 % cure of prostate cancer.” , Dr. Starev adds. In the presence of the respective medical indications, the newest generation equipment allows for treating the gland focally, in the tumor zone, or to be partially removed, that improves even more the treatment safety and quality of life for the patients.