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H.I.F.U.
updated: Sep 23, 2012, 7:10 PM

By Edhat Subscriber

I'm not finding a whole lot of information online, and am specifically interested in side effects, as opposed to more conventional forms of treatment?

Comments in order of when they were received | (reverse order)

COMMENT 323428P	2012-09-23 07:22 PM
get asecond opinion or a third, if you're not satisfied. Go to City Of Hope in LA, or Stanford Cancer Center if you can. Cancer is their game. Very supportive staffs. My best wishes to you--you can beat it! Stay positive and lower your stress in any way you can. Deep breathing, yoga, tai chi, etc.
COMMENT 323434	2012-09-23 07:33 PM
I don't have personal experience, but I know there's a Foundation for HIFU and if you look on their site they probably list hospitals and treatment protocols. I can't link because I'm not a paid subscriber, but I'd start there. I agree about checking into treatment in Los Angeles (not necessarily City of Hope, but definitely UCLA or Cedars, both of which have much more focused and state of the art departments than our local hospital. SB is great, but cancer needs treatment out of town, sadly.)
COMMENT 323449	2012-09-23 07:59 PM
I love when someone asks for personal experiences and gets personal opinions.
COMMENT 323452	2012-09-23 08:03 PM
449 and your comment was helpful? I think the opinions before yours were at least trying to help.
SEEDLADY	2012-09-23 08:16 PM
449 Yes; I, too, hope the OP finds locals who can address his side effects issues. Maybe a local PC support group? Oncologists/urologists offices should have contact numbers. now tell me, exactly how is your comment helpful?
COMMENT 323512	2012-09-24 07:53 AM
If you are looking at treatment options for organ-confined prostate cancer don't restrict your search to thermal ablation. The best guys in California are Thomas Ahlering at UC Irvine and Tim Wilson at City of Hope. Both will give you a fair and balanced assessment of you particular case. both work with the daVinci System and use radiation therapies as appropriate. The gold standard continues to be surgery and while HIFU offers some promise it is still not FDA approved after several years on the market. There's a reason for that so if you are pursuing that option in Canada I would find a large center and ask for patient referrals through them. Good luck with it!
COMMENT 323525P	2012-09-24 08:24 AM
Is it the same as proton therapy? We lost our Dad 2 years ago to prostate cancer that was slowly growing for decades. IMO, the local docs weren't aware of nor aggressive enough in considering the emerging options. If they'd been on it before it metasticized, Dad might still be with us today. Too late, in the last year of Dad's life, we spoke with a friend locally who had phenomenal success with proton therapy (radiation beam, tightly focused on the prostate every day to destroy it, but nothing else; <15 mins/day daily for 6 weeks). He just lived in Loma Linda for the required 6 weeks, and is doing great -- now in his 80s, a decade later -- still functioning normally for peeing and sex. Be aggressive and get second opinions and consider multiple options. "Watchful waiting" can eventually kill you.
COMMENT 323761	2012-09-24 07:31 PM
My husband had prostate cancer in 2007. His message is "Don't mess around. Go to City of Hope and get that cancer cut out of your body". We were back home within 48 hours. 5 years later, he's alive and well with minimal side effects. Believe me, we were both as nervous as you about side effects.

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