You really do need to look into HIFU, which is High Intensity Focused Ultrasound. I had it done, it is ultrasound, no pain, no down time, no brainer-easy. It's been in use in Europe for 18 years, but it isn't FDA approved here yet, it's in clinical trials, which I could post all the hospitals and phone numbers for you if you are interested. Or, if money isn't an option over health care then I recommend going to Mexico or Nassau for treatment, my doctor is from S. Carolina and he travels there with his nurse, anethiesologist and a certified mechanic to monitor the Sonablate machine every weekend. $25,000. I understand there are 12 U.S. doctors traveling outside the US to treat men.
Yes, there are stories of problems with HIFU, but not nearly like the complication rate of surgery or radiation (complications with radiation come a year to three out), and if your doctor is well experienced then your risk of a problem is near zip with HIFU.
The only difference between the Ablatherm and the Sonablate ultrasound machines is the Ablatherm is robotic, while the Sonablate is manipulated by a doctor using a computer mouse seeing a real time 3-D image.
Here is some clinical trial data:
http://hifu.wordpress.com/2006/11/01/outcome-analysis-of-hig
Nov. 2006
Materials and Methods
This series comprises 340 patients who were treated with Sonablate® HIFU devices (Focus Surgery, IN, USA) patients with a minimum follow-up of one year. During follow-up, prostatic biopsies and PSA level measurements were performed to determine the failure as 3 consecutive rises in the PSA according to the ASTRO definition. None of the patients received androgen deprivation prior to documenting biochemical failure. Kaplan-Meier curves and log-rank test were used for analysis.
Results
The median age and PSA level were 68 years (range 45-88) and 9.5 ng/ml (range 3.1 to 154), respectively. Stage was attributed as follows: T1c in 173, T2a in 106, T2b in 47 and T3 in 14 patients. The median follow-up period for all patients was 23.2 months (range 3 to 86).
The average biochemical disease-free survival (bDFS) at 5 years in all patients was 70%.
The bDFS at 5 years for patients with low, intermediate and high risk groups were 90%, 65% and 57%, respectively (p<0.0001).
The bDFS at 5 years for patients with PSA less than 10 ng/ml, 10-20 ng/ml and more than 30 ng/ml were 88%, 68% and 17%, respectively (p<0.0001). 78% had negative biopsies from a mean of 6 cores 6 months after HIFU.
Conclusions
HIFU appears to be both an effective and well tolerated procedure for men with localized prostate cancer.
I fall in the 90% biochemical disease-free survival (bDFS) statistic. Yeah!
Good luck, he has a great daughter.