The Prostate Project - Offering care and support to prostate cancer sufferers, their families and friends Offering care and support to prostate cancer sufferers, their families and friends
Spring 2006 Edition
 

Guildford’s first HiFu patient treated at Mount Alvernia

Prostate Project provides initial funding for 5 NHS patients at Royal Surrey County Hospital.

Fred Hawkins, a retired aeronautical engineer, recently became the first patient in Guildford to be treated by high intensity frequency ultrasound (HiFu) at Mount Alvernia hospital.

This procedure enables temperatures of up to 100 degrees centigrade to be generated at a precise focus within the prostate gland. At this temperature cancer is destroyed but adjacent normal tissue is untouched. It is minimally invasive and utilises a trans-rectal ultrasound device for imaging combined with a generator to produce the high energy required.

The patient is under anaesthetic for the procedure and can be discharged within 24 hours. John Davies, one of the Prostate Project founders and a Consultant urological surgeon at RSCH said ”This is further evidence of Guildford’s importance as a centre of excellence in the treatment of prostate cancer. The Royal Surrey is now the only hospital in the UK to offer all modalities of treatment for prostate cancer”.

Other prostate cancer treatments include brachytherapy, cryosurgery, laparascopic surgery and radiotherapy. HiFu is approved by the national Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) and is available at the Royal Surrey subject to Primary Care Trust approval.

The Prostate Project is providing initial funding for 5 NHS patients at the Royal Surrey County Hospital to help get the new programme started.

Speaking of his decision to go for HiFu, Fred Hawkins said “I suppose it’s quite an honour to be a pioneering patient! I am confident that John Davies and his team have given me the best treatment I could have anywhere”.