Ultrasound prostate cancer device touted

AUSTIN, Texas, May 24 (UPI) -- A new ultrasound treatment for prostate cancer is showing promise of stopping the disease without causing impotence or incontinence, observers say.

The still-experimental treatment, called high-intensity focused ultrasound, uses the sonic technology to heat the prostate to the point of killing cancerous cells and reducing tumors without the high rates of impotence caused by current treatments such as radiation therapy or the removal of the prostate, The Austin (Texas) American-Statesman reported Sunday.

Some U.S. doctors, such as Austin urologist Richard Chopp, have been trained by a company that makes a device used in the procedure, International HIFU, to perform it in Mexico, where Chopp says he has done about a dozen such prostate operations since September.

Dr. John Ward, an assistant professor of urology at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, told the newspaper he is doing clinical trials on a rival device from a French company called EDAP. He cautioned would-be users against being seduced "with the flash of technology."

"We need to learn the proper patient that can benefit most from this technology," he said. "It's not right for everybody."