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Westmead Private Hospital offers new prostate cancer treatment options

May 05, 2019

After 60 years as a firefighter, 77 year old Len Best was looking forward to pottering in his lemon orchard in Dural, NSW. However, his plans were put on hold when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Mr Best was unsuitable for the two standard treatment options (surgery or radiotherapy) due to earlier radiotherapy and surgery for bowel cancer.

His urologist, Professor Howard Lau from Westmead Private Hospital, had to find an alternative method of treatment.

Mr Best had irreversible electroporation (IRE) – a promising new minimally invasive procedure for the ablation of solid tumours.

Unlike the current leading thermal ablation methods, IRE uses non-thermal electric energy to irreversibly destabilize cell membranes, resulting in focused cell death. Nonthermal energy causes minimal tissue damage, hence reduced treatment related side effects. It has been used clinically for prostate, kidney, pancreatic and liver cancers.

Only 15–20% of prostate cancers suffers are suitable for IRE, which uses ultra-short but strong electrical fields to create permanent and hence lethal nanopores in the cell membrane, to disrupt the cellular homeostasis.

The resulting cell death results from apoptosis and not necrosis as in all other thermal or radiation based ablation techniques. The complication commonly associated with prostatic cancer can be avoided which is the major advantage of this treatment.

Advances in MRI scanning and improved biopsy techniques can localise the cancer in the prostate, allowing focal ablation such as IRE to only treat the index lesion. This avoids the potential side effects of whole gland treatment such as surgery or radiotherapy.

IRE is undertaken using a NanoKnife System and the benefits include :

  • No open incisions
  • Less damage to healthy tissue
  • Minimal postoperative pain
  • Fewer side effects, such as incontinence and sexual dysfunction
  • Short hospital stay
  • Quick post-operative recovery
  • Ability to repeat the procedure if new tumours develop

Mr Best will undergo frequent monitoring, with repeat blood tests, MRI and biopsies to monitor his condition.

Westmead Private Hospital is the only facility in Western Sydney to offer IRE treatment and only the second facility in NSW offering this minimally invasive treatment for localised prostate cancer.

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