Results After HIFU Treatment For Primary Prostate Cancer
HIFU Specialist in Los Angeles, California

Dr. Pugach reviews HIFU results
One of the challenges for patients deciding how to treat their prostate cancer is wading through the huge numbers of studies and statistics to understand what works well and the frequency of side effects.
Here’s why that is. Whenever a clinical trial is done, there are innumerable variables that must be considered. For prostate cancer treatment success rates these include:
- The Gleason grade of the treated cancer
- The amount of cancer present
- The accuracy of the pathologist in assessing the prostate cancer specimen
- The pre-treatment and post-treatment PSA levels vary because there are many lab methods used in handling a blood sample
- The treatment technique used by the treating urologist
- The experience of the treating urologist
- The type of equipment used
- The accuracy of the post-treatment data collection
- The percent of patients who were available for analysis
- The definition of side effects and complications
To learn more about prostate cancer, please review the information on Understanding Prostate Cancer. These are just a few of the many variables that can impact the results of treatment studies.
Understanding Your Results
One of the largest studies showed prostate cancer treatment success rates between 61% – 95% for HIFU treated patients. That’s a large range.
Dr. Robert Pugach, has more than 17 years of experience treating prostate cancer patients with HIFU. During that time, we have seen cancer-free rates that are the same as those achieved with radical prostate surgery and exceed the results seen after radiation therapy.
This is based upon the CAPRA data for the likelihood of prostate cancer recurrence after a treatment. That data shows cancer cure rates that range from 86% to 20%, depending upon the Gleason grade, tumor volume and your PSA at the time of diagnosis.
We understand that all of this can be very confusing when you are trying to choose a treatment that may cure your cancer and not cause the life altering side effects of permanent urinary incontinence and erectile dysfunction.
When you have your consultation with Dr. Pugach he can give you more detailed information about your cancer and the options that may be best for you.
Dr. Pugach’s urology office is located in Los Alamitos, CA. For patients who live out-of-the-area and for international patients who want to discuss prostate cancer treatment options with Dr. Pugach, we offer telephone or online/virtual consultations.
Call us at 877-884-HIFU (877-884-4438) to schedule an in-person or telephone or online consultation. You can also email us via our contact form on this website.