VITUS presents impressive results on treatment of high-grade prostate cancer at World Congress

Patients with so-called high-grade prostate cancer often struggle with severe side effects after a standard treatment. Our data shows that IRE as a treatment method is much gentler, but just as efficient as standard therapies.

The VITUS Prostate Center has presented current data at this year’s World Congress of Electroporation for the treatment of high-grade prostate cancer (PCa) using Irreversible Electroporation (IRE). The promising results are based on a retrospective observational study of the first 113 patients with high-grade PCa treated at the VITUS Prostate Center with a follow-up period of up to 6 years.

The malignancy of a prostate carcinoma depends on its distinction from normal tissue and its tumor type. The malignancy indicates the aggressiveness of the cancer and increases with the severity of the difference to normal tissue. The aim of the so-called grading is to precisely determine these differences and thus the degree of malignancy. High-grade prostate cancers are those carcinomas that have a Gleason Score of 8, 9, or 10. These carcinomas are particularly aggressive, and prognosis of a recurrence-free survival after treatment is significantly worse compared to lower Gleason scores.

Can patients with particularly aggressive prostate cancer receive a treatment that eliminates the cancer but does not cause serious side effects such as incontinence or permanent impotence? Our data clearly shows that this is possible when employing focal therapy via IRE.

Analysis of the results revealed that treatment with NanoKnife leads to minimal side effects, but at the same time to similar oncological results as standard therapy by radical prostatectomy. In other words, this means that focal therapy using IRE results in fewer side effects at the same recurrence rates as total surgical removal of the prostate, despite the high aggressiveness of the cancer. Here you can read the summary of the presented data.