Prostate Cancer
How and when do focal therapies help?

How and when do focal therapies help?

VC
Written by Vincent Cochez
Expert review by Rupa Dainer

Published: 18. June 2024
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After reading this article, you will know

  • what focal therapy is
  • if it is suitable for you
  • how it works
  • where focal therapy is offered

Prostate cancer can be treated in many ways. You might have heard about focal therapies from the internet or your treatment team. These treatments are new and have been shown to work well. They mainly target the cancer cells in a small area and generally leave the healthy tissue unaffected. Because of this, they usually have fewer side effects than surgery or radiation. However, these prostate cancer treatments are still in clinical trials. There are still many things researchers don’t know about these therapies.

What is focal therapy?

Focal therapies use hot or cold temperatures to kill cancer cells. They generally avoid harming the healthy parts of the prostate. This reduces the incidence of erection-related and urine-controlling issues and other side effects. But studies have not yet shown how these treatments affect people in the long run.

How does focal therapy work?

Focal therapies use different methods to kill cancer cells. These include:

  • freezing the cancer cells with special needles
  • heating them with different kinds of energy, like sound waves, electric currents, lasers, or radio waves
  • destroying them with tiny radioactive beads that go inside the cancer cells
  • using drugs that are activated by light

Is focal therapy an option for you?

Researchers don’t yet know if focal therapies work as well as standard treatments. Not everyone with prostate cancer can get focal therapies. They are only used to treat people with cancer that has not spread outside the prostate.

Focal therapies are currently not optimal for tumors that have grown beyond the prostate or have spread to other parts of the body. They also cannot help with the other symptoms of metastatic cancer.

What types of focal therapies are used?

Researchers are still testing different kinds of focal therapy to see how well they work.

There are three major types of therapies in particular:

High-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU)

During HIFU, a small device is inserted into the rectum, and high-energy ultrasound waves are sent to the prostate. The sound waves are aimed at the cancer cells in the prostate. The sound waves harm the cancer cells and stop them from growing.

Cryotherapy or cold therapy

Many small needles are put into the prostate. They use special gases to make the cancer cells very cold, causing them to die. A small ultrasound medical device is inserted into the rectum. This shows where the needles are being placed.

Irreversible electroporation (IRE)

In irreversible electroporation, electricity is used to kill cancer cells. Your treatment team will put needles into the tumor and send a strong electric current through it. This makes holes form in the cancer cells, causing them to die.

Where are focal therapies offered, and who pays the costs?

Your treatment team will be able to tell you where the best centers are that offer this relatively new type of therapy. Their cost should be clarified with your health insurance company in advance, but many insurance companies are now covering this cost.

In summary

  • Focal therapies are new ways to treat cancer that are still being fully tested.
  • Their long-term effectiveness is still being studied.

What you can do

  • Learn more about focal therapies and how they work.
  • Ask your treatment team about the benefits and risks.
  • Look into how focal therapies compare against other treatment options for your cancer.
VC
Written by Vincent Cochez
Vincent holds a degree in Osteopathy from the University of Wales (2014) and a degree in Multilingual Communication from the University of Leuven (2018). During his studies, he conducted research on patient-doctor communication and followed courses on general health, copywriting, and medical translation.
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