Background
Owing to the morbidity of established radical treatment options for prostate cancer, alternative whole-gland and focal treatment strategies have emerged. High-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) is one of the most studied sources for tissue ablation and has been used since the 1990s.
Objective
To provide 21-yr oncological long-term follow-up data of an unselected series of patients who underwent whole-gland HIFU for nonmetastatic prostate cancer.
Design, setting, and participants
A total of 674 patients were treated between November 1997 and November 2012 in one university center.
Outcome measurements and statistical analysis
The oncological outcome was assessed by biopsy failure–free survival (BFFS), salvage treatment–free survival (STFS), metastasis-free survival (MFS), cancer-specific survival (CSS), and overall survival (OS). Multivariable Cox proportional hazard regression analyses were performed to estimate the prognostic relevance of clinical variables.
Results and limitations
In total, 560 patients were included into the evaluation and the median follow-up was 15.1 yr, with a range up to 21.4 yr. At 15 yr, CSS rates for low-, intermediate-, and high-risk patients were 95%, 89%, and 65%, respectively; MFS, STFS-1 (salvage treatment other than HIFU), STFS-2 (salvage treatment including repeat HIFU), and BFFS rates were 91%, 85%, and 58%; 77%, 63%, and 29%; 67%, 52%, and 28%; and 82%, 73%, and 47%, respectively. Preoperative high-risk category was an independent predictor of inferior OS, CSS, MFS, STFS, and BFFS.
Conclusions
Although whole-gland HIFU achieved good long-term cancer control in low- and intermediate-risk patients, high-risk patients should not be treated routinely by HIFU. Intermediate-risk patients achieve high CSS and MFS rates, but a relevant salvage treatment rate has to be reckoned with. Long-term data after whole-gland therapy might help derive implications for focal treatment sources and patient selection.
