Prof Hashim Ahmed said a 10-year NHS study showed focal therapy for prostate cancer can deliver excellent long-term cancer control with less than half the side-effect risk of surgery or radiotherapy. The study followed nearly 3,500 men and found that ten years after treatment only two had died from prostate cancer.
The result matters because focal therapy is still used by only about 1,000 men a year in the UK, even though researchers say up to 15,000 men could benefit. The new data gives clinicians long-term evidence they had lacked when judging whether to offer it more widely.
Imperial College London study
The study was led by Imperial College London and followed men over 10 years after focal therapy, a treatment that uses high-intensity ultrasound or freezing cryotherapy to destroy cancerous tissue. Nearly all of the men had intermediate or high-risk prostate cancer, and the outcomes were as good as surgery or radiotherapy.
Ahmed, a consultant urologist at Imperial College London and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, said the findings demonstrated that focal therapy delivers excellent long-term cancer control across a broad range of patients. He added that it makes a compelling case for more centres to offer this treatment.
Rob Huxford in London
Rob Huxford had focal therapy in 2020 after being diagnosed with prostate cancer that year when he was 44. He said he has had no long-term issues at all and described the treatment as fantastic.
Huxford said he felt incredibly fortunate to have been offered focal therapy and said it felt unfair that it is not offered to men across the whole country. He added that it was because he lives in London that he received that treatment.
Prost8 UK access question
Paul Sayer, the 70-year-old founder of Prost8 UK, said the study is incredibly significant. He said, “Our hope is that this evidence marks the point where every suitable man is routinely offered focal therapy as part of their treatment choices, regardless of where they lives” and added, “This research shouldn't just change clinical practice - it should change conversations in every consulting room across the UK.”
The treatment is not suitable for men whose cancer is in multiple parts of their prostate or has spread beyond the gland. For men who do fit the profile, the open question is how many centres will start offering focal therapy more widely after a study that now supplies the long-term data regulators had said was missing.
