More than 90 percent of men diagnosed with prostate cancer have localized disease, defined as cancer that hasn’t spread outside of the prostate. For some patients, urologists may recommend active surveillance or monitoring low-grade disease with periodic prostate-specific antigen (PSA) tests. But active surveillance may be difficult for patients who have been told they have cancer and do not want to live with the risk of it growing in their bodies.
Two standard choices have dominated treatments – radical prostatectomy and/or radiotherapy. However, a newer, minimally invasive treatment called high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) has emerged in the U.S. and is an appropriate, non-invasive choice for prostate cancer patients who meet certain criteria.