What Is High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU), When Is It Used To Treat Prostate Cancer, How Successful Is It, And How Do You Know That HIFU Worked?

March 16, 2009 -- Question: What is High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU), when is it used to treat prostate cancer, how successful is it, and how do you know that HIFU worked?

Answer: High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound or called HIFU is largely a procedure where in a focused very high-intensity ultrasound beam is focused on tumor within the prostate gland. In theory this has great applicability. In practice in this country it's not an accepted form of therapy for prostate cancer. The reason is it doesn't have that long a track record in this country. The greatest usage of this is in Asia and in Western Europe.