CHARLOTTE, N.C., April 26, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Men diagnosed with prostate cancer are often forced to choose between invasive treatment, such as surgery or radiation, or watchful waiting, simply monitoring the disease over time. HIFU, which stands for high intensity focused ultrasound, is helping men find middle ground in choosing a treatment option that eliminates the disease but also preserves quality of life.

HIFU is a non-surgical, radiation-free, outpatient procedure that uses focused sound waves to heat and destroy tissue in the prostate. In October 2015, the FDA cleared HIFU for prostate tissue ablation.

HIFU Prostate Services, the most experienced provider of HIFU with the largest network of HIFU doctors, announced a new partnership with Prostate Cancer Specialist of Los Angeles and Pacific Coast Urology that will further expand their network and give patients access to HIFU in Beverly Hills, Calif. led by Kia Michel, MD.
HIFU treatment will take place at La Peer Surgery Center, a California-based multi million-dollar outpatient facility that is home to 50 of the country's most renowned surgeons across all major medical disciplines. This HIFU treatment center is the eighth treatment center that HIFU Prostate Services has established in the U.S. and the first HIFU center in the world to specialize exclusively in offering men a focal therapy option.

Focal therapy, often referred to as a "male lumpectomy," is a general term for a variety of noninvasive techniques for destroying small tumors inside the prostate while leaving the gland intact and sparing most of its normal tissue.

"HIFU is in a unique position to be able to destroy tissue within the prostate, without causing damage to surround tissue and nerves. Since it is a non-invasive, outpatient procedure, it is the perfect tool to ablate small amounts of tissue at a time," said Robert Pugach, MD, medical director of Pacific Coast Urology and a HIFU proctor who has been involved with over 400 HIFU treatments.

"Using the unique features of the Sonablate HIFU System, I can customize treatment for each patient's prostate and disease. Sometimes this means only treating part of the prostate, more specifically, the location of the tumor," said Michel. "Until very recently, the standard practice for treating prostate cancer has been to surgically remove the entire gland. With new diagnostic tools, we can now pinpoint exactly where the tumor within the prostate is located using multi-parametric MRI and UroNav fusion biopsies, and then we can fuse those same images to the Sonablate to guide us in delivering HIFU to target tissue in the prostate."

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