Prostate cancer patients are being denied ‘life-preserving’ treatment

Thousands of men suffering with prostate cancer are being denied access to a ‘quality of life-preserving’ treatment by the NHS.

Focal therapy, a non-invasive treatment which targets cancerous cells while avoiding damaging surrounding tissue, was introduced to the UK in 2006.

The treatment dramatically reduces the risk of incontinence and erectile dysfunction, side effects which can affect up to 20 per cent of men who undergo other forms of cancer treatment such as radiotherapy.

It is also much cheaper than other treatments, with patients usually in and out of hospital in a day and less likely to need follow-up care.

But it is still rarely available on the NHS despite around 15,000 men who could benefit.

Only a few specialist centres, mostly in London, carry out the focal therapy, as doctors warn that most patients are not told about the treatment and face life-changing side effects.

Around 60,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer each year but a mere 600 to 700 are thought to be offered it, although it is widely available privately for an average £16,000.

David Cameron paid to be privately treated with focal therapy after he was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

The former Prime Minister was diagnosed after his wife Samantha urged him to get a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) having listened to a radio interview on symptoms.

Focal therapy is just as effective as surgery, according to a study published by Imperial College London.

It showed that only one in 20 people had side effects including incontinence, compared with six in ten who had traditional surgeries.

Professor Hashim Ahmed, chair of urology at Imperial College London, said: ‘Men with prostate cancer have a right to know that focal therapy is open to them as an alternative option to surgery, radiotherapy and active surveillance, but that is not the case.’

The professor, who helped introduce the treatment to the UK, told The Times: ‘It’s been 20 years since I worked with Professor [Mark] Emberton on introducing focal therapy in the UK and, in many ways, we’re no further along, even though the technology has moved on considerably.

He added: ‘We have seen cases where patients attend an NHS cancer centre, are told of their diagnosis and are offered surgery or radiotherapy as the main options, with focal therapy not mentioned at all.

‘Those patients then go away, research it themselves, come back and ask, ‘What about focal therapy?’ and are told, ‘No, it’s not proven, we don’t recommend it.’ Some patients end up absolutely fighting for it, insisting they want focal therapy, and only then are they finally referred.’

He has urged the NHS to introduce the treatment at more hospitals

There are three principal forms of focal therapy: High‑intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU), which uses focused ultrasound waves to generate heat and destroy cancer cells; irreversible electroporation (also known as NanoKnife), which delivers electrical pulses that kill cancer cells; and cryotherapy, which uses extreme cold to freeze and destroy cancer cells. 

Professor Ahmed branded the introduction of NanoKnife as ‘genuinely game-changing’.

But Lord Cameron was one of just 175 patients to have used NanoKnife treatment across the country last year.

The NHS has claimed that ‘current guidance notes limited evidence on the effectiveness of cryotherapy and high-intensity focused ultrasound’.