Laser Prostate Centers of America (LPCA) is a team of expert urologists and interventional radiologists moving prostate cancer detection and treatment into the twenty-first century with the introduction of the latest in diagnostics and image-guidance technology.
It is a fact that most Americans aren’t aware of, but need to know – other than skin cancer, prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men and represents 10.7% of all new cancer cases in the United States. With these kind of statistics, it is surprising that the technology for detection and treatment of prostate cancer has not been similar to that of other organ cancers like breast cancer. With recent breakthroughs in technology, prostate cancer can now be better detected with high resolution multi-parametric MRI (mpMRI), and treated with image-guided focal laser ablation (FLA). These new approaches allow patients to better understand prostate cancer diagnosis and treatment options to make more educated and informed decisions regarding their care, and to help them maintain quality of life.
Focal therapies like FLA for low grade or early stage prostate cancer has advantages over traditional treatment. With this cutting-edge procedure, cancers can be detected and treated without sacrificing the whole prostate gland, which leads to significantly lower risk of side effects like incontinence and impotence.
Xavier Garcia-Rojas, M.D., Ph.D., M.B.A., a partner in the multi-specialty team at LPCA who offers MRI-guided biopsies and focal therapies including focal laser ablation (FLA), noted that, “the use of advanced image-guidance and focal therapies has opened the door for superior diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer. LPCA wants to educate the public about these new breakthroughs that can help detect and treat men with prostate cancer while retaining their quality of life.”
Founded earlier this year, LPCA’s goal is to help educate, diagnose, and treat men suffering from prostate cancer. Low grade (early stage) prostate cancer treatment has long included active surveillance and more aggressive treatments such as radical prostatectomy (whole gland removal) and radiation. The newer FLA technology is not only a quick, minimally-invasive procedure with a quicker recovery time, it offers several benefits that traditional whole gland therapies do not, such as: real-time MR imaging, real-time visualization of ablation, immediate confirmation of treatment success, it is repeatable and does not hamper other treatments in the future like surgery and radiation, and it preserves urinary and erectile function.
The older transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) method of detection, which dates back to the 1980s is commonly accepted by healthcare professionals, but misses 50% of cancers, detects non-significant cancers in the prostate and can lead to under grading the cancer, overaggressive treatment, or missing the clinically significant tumor. The TRUS method has been referred to as a “blind biopsy” due to the way in which the samples are collected.
Focal treatments have also become widely accepted for many other types of cancer treatment. For breast cancer patients routinely subjected to a mastectomy (surgical removal of the entire breast), focal therapy allowed for a lumpectomy (removal of the tumor only), which was less invasive and equally as effective for most patients. The same FLA technology used for prostate was first used by neurologists to successfully remove brain tumors and help children with epileptic seizures.
The bottom line is prostate cancer management can now be elevated to the level seen in other cancer treatments through detection with high resolution imaging and focal treatment. The team at LPCA, with offices in Houston, is available to help men from across the country and the globe with minimally-invasive alternatives for prostate cancer that have fewer side effects and hope to educate the public about these advances in that technology.
About Laser Prostate Centers of America (LPCA)
Laser Prostate Centers of America is a group of expert physicians that offer cutting-edge technologies to determine detection and treatment options for prostate cancer. The team of highly-skilled physicians and staff bring many years of knowledge in urology and interventional radiology to their patients in helping determine the best strategy and treatment plans using the new technologies that were not available to men in the past. In using these approaches for minimally-invasive treatment and detection, men have a quicker recovery time and can better maintain their quality of life with fewer side effects such as incontinence and impotence. With offices located in Houston, Texas, LPCA works with patients from across the country and the globe to help determine their best path for prostate cancer treatment. www.laserprostate.com