MRI-guided focal laser ablation system (Visualase) shows promise in patients with Prostate Cancer

A small Phase I trial of an MRI-guided focal laser ablation system, from Visualase, designed to treat the diseased portion of the Prostate in patients with Prostate Cancer, suggests the technique is safe and can be performed without the troubling complications associated with more aggressive therapies. This study enrolled nine men with biopsy-confirmed, low-risk Prostate Cancers with an MRI of the prostate showing a small area of cancer. Patients were treated under conscious sedation while lying in an MRI scanner.

After local anesthetic, a small catheter was inserted across the perineum and used to guide an optical fiber, the laser and a cooling device into the prostate. Under MRI guidance, the laser was positioned within the cancer and used to heat the area to a temperature that would kill cancer cells. None of the nine men treated in the study had a significant side effect. Six months after therapy, seven of the nine patients (78%) no longer had evidence of cancerous tissue in biopsies of the treated area. A Phase II trial of this procedure is now underway at the University of Chicago Medicine. The physicians hope to enroll 27 patients. See: "MR Imaging�guided Focal Laser Ablation for Prostate Cancer: Phase I Trial." Aytekin Oto et al. Radiology, published online before print February 25, 2013, doi: 10.1148/radiol.13121652