Re: Microwave focal therapy of prostate cancer: A non-clinical study and exploratory clinical trial.

Abstract

The authors conducted an animal model study and a phase 2 clinical trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of focal therapy using microwave tissue coagulation (MTC) to treat prostate cancer. [1] The results indicated thatfocaltherapyusingmicrowaveablationisrelatively safe and may be an option for lesion-targeted therapy for prostate cancer. In a canine prostate model, the authors demonstrated that the thermocoagulative effect of MTC can successfully cause coagulative necrosis on histological evaluation of healthy prostate tissue. This was evaluated by removing the prostate and the surrounding tissue from the animal model a few hours after treatment with MTC. The authors found that the extent of coagulation necrosis and cell death produced by MTC was proportional to both the energy output and irradiation time. The authors then demonstrated that intraoperative ultrasonographic measurements were correlated with pathological measurements of the ablated tissue. Although this study demonstrated the potential utility of MTC for the treatment of prostate cancer, the study had some notable limitations. First, microwave