(IntegrityPress.org) – A new treatment for prostate cancer is using ultrasonic pulses to destroy cancer cells while leaving healthy cells unharmed. A recently revealed study from Dr. Steven Raman at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA explained that researchers were able to finely tune the pulses such that they effectively disrupted the cell membranes of cancer cells while leaving neighboring healthy cells intact.
The technique killed prostate cancer cells with efficacy rates of 76% when the men went back to have a follow-up one year after the procedure. The study recruited 115 men across 13 different hospitals around the world who had diagnosed prostate cancer and a tumor requiring treatment. They performed this procedure instead of traditional laparoscopic surgery which can leave men with difficulties controlling urination as well as sexual impotence.
The procedure is a simple out-patient protocol and can be performed in under three hours with spinal or general anesthesia. While they were able to eliminate the cancer in 76% of the patients, they also reduced prostate size for 92%. All the men showed a decrease in their PSA levels. PSA is a prostate-specific antigen and is a warning sign for prostate cancer when it spikes.
The researchers added that their protocol was incredibly successful in reducing incidents of unwanted side effects like incontinence and impotence. They showed that 92% of the men had bladder control and 87% had the ability to achieve and maintain an erection. Raman suggested these results are “revolutionary” and will dramatically increase quality of life for men who experience prostate cancer and require treatment.
Raman said that prostate cancer is incredibly common impacting roughly one out of eight men at some point during their lives. While these results are still preliminary, they will be presented during a meeting of the Society of Interventional Radiology, meaning the treatment could be much more common in the near future.
The history of the development of the technique is detailed here.
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