Funding research and education to beat prostate disease
New treatments
Cryotherapy
Prostate cancer cells are killed by a freezing process in this treatment. Special needles, similar to those used in brachytherapy, are inserted into the prostate under anaesthesia. Liquid nitrogen is pumped through the needle into the affected prostate tissue, which freezes the cancer.
Techniques are improving with this treatment but it is not yet known whether cryotherapy helps men to live longer or improves their quality of life compared to radiotherapy or surgery. Long-term monitoring is needed to give a clear picture. Erection problems are frequently reported after treatment and rectal and urethral damage can occur.
Currently cryotherapy is mainly used where prostate cancer has recurred after radiotherapy.
High intensity focused ultrasound
HIFU is a new technology that allows ultrasound waves to be focused on prostate cancer cells. It involves the insertion of an ultrasound probe into the rectum under anaesthesia and the destruction of cancer cells by ultrasound energy. The treatment can take up to 3 hours.
HIFU can be used to treat both newly diagnosed cancers and recurrences after radiotherapy. Initial results look encouraging: prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels seem to decline and side effects are limited. A catheter is required for several days and sometimes longer after treatment due to swelling of the prostate in response to therapy. Damage to the bladder and rectum has been described as a possible side-effect of treatment.
Much longer-term follow-up and trials comparing it with surgery and radiotherapy is required before HIFU can be regarded as a mainstream treatment.
Photodynamic therapy
Photodynamic therapy (PDT) uses light, and has been used to treat other forms of cancer, mainly in the head and neck.
Researchers at University College London are assessing the use of photodynamic therapy for prostate cancer. Photodynamic therapy uses a drug, based on chlorophyll which is injected into the blood stream to make the whole body sensitive to light. The drug only works when it is activated by special light from a laser. Thin optical fibres are put into the prostate to deliver the laser light. The activated drug then acts to block blood vessels, and cause death of prostate cells (normal cells and cancer cells).
It is hoped that this treatment could offer less side effects than current treatments such as surgery and radiotherapy. It can be performed within a 24 hour hospital visit, and if it proves successful it could be repeated as necessary.
Does photodynamic therapy only kill cancer cells?
Photodynamic therapy, like all of the other treatments for prostate cancer, can kill normal cells as well as cancer cells. Cancer cells are more sensitive to PDT and normal cells can recover or be repaired much better than cancer cells. It is thought that vascular-targeted photodynamic therapy with Tookad works on the blood vessels supplying cancer cells more effectively than on normal blood vessels. This is one of the aspects of the treatment that is being investigated in current studies.
