Posted on 12/04/2019 2:11:10 PM PST by Red Badger
Scientists are reporting promising results from a year-long study where soundwaves were used to heat and destroy prostate cancers decade3d/Depositphotos View 2 Images
Treating prostate cancer through traditional means such as surgery or radiotherapy carries certain risks, with some patients experiencing impotence, urinary problems and bowel trouble, among other unwanted side effects. Safer and less invasive treatment options could soon be on the table, however, including a novel MRI-guided ultrasound technique that eliminated significant cancers in 80 percent of subjects in a year-long study.
The new technique is called MRI-guided transurethral ultrasound ablation (TULSA) and has been under development for a number of years. The minimally invasive technology involves a rod that enters the prostate gland via the urethra and emits highly controlled sound waves in order to heat and destroy diseased tissue, while leaving healthy tissue unharmed.
These waves come from 10 heating elements built into the length of the rod to treat the entire prostate gland. An algorithm controls which of these elements emit the sound waves at any one time, along with their shape, direction and strength. All of this takes place within an MRI scanner, allowing doctors to keep a close eye on which tissues are being heated and by how much.
TULSA uses a rod inserted into the prostate to target diseased tissue with soundwavesRadiological Society of North America
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"Unlike with other ultrasound systems on the market, you can monitor the ultrasound ablation process in real time and get immediate MRI feedback of the thermal dose and efficacy," says study co-auhor Steven S. Raman, M.D., professor of radiology and urology at the University of California at Los Angeles. "It's an outpatient procedure with minimal recovery time."
Raman and his team recently put TULSA to the test in a study involving 115 men with low- or intermediate-risk prostate cancer that was confined to the gland. The TULSA treatment was administered to the whole gland for an average time of 51 minutes, with the cancers then reassessed 12 months later.
These follow-up observations revealed some hugely promising results. “Clinically significant cancer” was totally eliminated in 80 percent of the subjects a year after the TULSA treatment. Sixty-five percent of the subjects exhibited no evidence of cancer at all in their biopsies, while prostate-specific antigen (PSA), the key biomarker for prostate cancer, was reduced by a median of 95 percent.
No bowel complications were reported, while the group reported low rates of severe toxicity, low rates of impotence and close to no incontinence (involuntary urine loss from the bladder). Additionally, the technique can be used to treat other benign conditions, such as prostate enlargement. On average, prostate volume among the study subjects decreased from 39 cubic centimeters beforehand, to 3.8 cubic centimeters following the treatment.
"There are two very unique things about this system," says Raman. "First, you can control with much more finesse where you're going to treat, preserving continence and sexual function. Second, you can do this for both diffuse and localized prostate cancer and benign diseases, including benign hyperplasia."
The scientists are now working towards further studies to support these exciting results. With TULSA already approved for clinical use in Europe, and having recently received FDA pre-market clearance as safe and effective for prostate treatment in the US, the hope is that it could reach clinical use stateside in the near future.
The scientists presented the research results at this week’s annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America. An abstract is available online here, while the animation below offers a look at TULSA in action.
I had prostrate cancer but wanted 100% gone, not just 80%. I have been cancer free for several years now and doing great, thanks to catching it early and good treatment.
Instead, why doesn’t medical science try to find the cause of prostate cancer.
Less myeloma risk?
This reminds me of a liver cancer treatment, where they insert to steel rods so the cancer is between the two points. Then they turn on the electricity and burn out the cancer area. Works.
I think the cause of many cancers is simply "human frailty". Chromosomes are very complex molecules that many cells in the body must be able to duplicate EXACTLY and sometimes that duplication must be carried on many, many times.
The mechanism for duplicating these complex molecules is itself extremely complicated and subject to external interference from unavoidable environmental processes.
As long as most people reach child-bearing years there will be little evolutionary pressure to make the process better. It's simply good enough as it is. That is why we have about 8 billion people on the earth.
As some point, perhaps when we have 800 billion people, the conditions will become so bad that population will limit itself due to those conditions and our population will stabilize; with the inevitable fluctuations, of course.
I am actually pretty enthused about this development. I can foresee using focused sound to ablate tumors throughout the body, hopefully with extremely early detection, such that little damage is done. With the possible exception of the brain, I think this might be doable.
The necessity to insert a probe to get close to the tumor may be eliminated if the sound creation device is large enough to be located outside the body. The system might be similar to the device used to create fusion energy; that is multiple transducers all generating a small sound wave and pointed precisely so as to hit a small, cancerous target.
I take Finasteride, and it does indeed work (slowly).
Hi frequency focused energy, look up Dr Cilinton Bahler
IU Health, Indiana University Hospital
Great man, helluva doctor
Private message I will get you the information
/sarc (I wish, but you know it's how they think)
Ultrasound for imaging is safe for babies.
Not the same power strength or exact frequncies.
Much like anything else in the world, the frequency matters, and the power behind the signal matters, and how its delivered matters, continuous or pulsed.
implants and external beam radiation damage healthy tissues such as the rectum and bladder and can leave a nasty case of radiation proctitis etc. It can also make follow up surgery in the area messy to impossible
Ultrasound is physical vibration, like waves in water. Radiation is electromagnetic vibration. Similar in concept but different things.
That’s a common “entrance”. You get numbed up with lidocaine jelly first. I’ve been cathterized that way before surgery a couple of times - its not that bad.
The definition is not limited to electromagnetic radiation.
Once again...
Definition of Radiation
1a : the action or process of radiating
b : the process of emitting radiant energy in the form of waves or particles
c(1) : the combined processes of emission, transmission, and absorption of radiant energy
(2) : the transfer of heat by radiation — compare conduction, convection
2a : something that is radiated
b : energy radiated in the form of waves or particles
Sonic waves are not excluded!
Only if it vibrates...................
Blast away? Hardly. Your idea has been around for just about a hundred or so years, maybe longer. A sci-fi novel by Robert Heinlein, written in the early 1940's but not published until after the war, had as one of its 'predictive elements' a device that could cure practically any disease simply by 'tuning' it to the proper 'frequency' for that person and their disease.
There have been scams using the idea as well, getting desperate terminally ill people to pay for 'treatments' and 'therapies' that involve fancy words like "electro-magnetic resonances" and such, even to this day.
I have thought that there is a 'resonant frequency' for each cell type that only those cell types will respond to. We have all seen that if you hit the resonant frequency of a crystal wine glass with enough power, it will shatter. Also, we have seen the film of the 1940 original Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse because of its resonance with the wind. I would think that the same thing would happen with a cancer cell.............. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacoma_Narrows_Bridge_(1940) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXL3GdZlw88
They know the cause............lack of use!..................... ;^)
This method is so cheap and small it could be done in a doctor office....................
Yes, it works, because the liver is unique among our organs, in that, it can heal and regrow a damaged section.........
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