The principal current therapies for prostate cancer carry side effects that can very seriously affect a patient's quality of life.

One of the current therapies is radical prostatectomy, which involves the ablation of the entire prostate gland. Radical prostatectomy requires several days of hospital stay and several weeks of recovery, usually with catheterization, and may result in partial and/or total urinary incontinence.

In addition, it almost invariably renders patients impotent. A new surgical technique, nerve-sparing prostatectomy, has been developed to address that problem. However, the procedure can only be applied when the tumor is not located close to the surface of the prostate and requires a very skilled surgeon.

Other therapies for localized prostate cancer include brachytherapy, a therapy that involves the implantation of radioisotopes into the prostate gland, external beam radiotherapy and cryotherapy.

The Company's HIFU devices compete with all current treatments for localized tumors, which include surgery, brachytherapy, radiotherapy, cryotherapy and hormonotherapy.
The Company believes that HIFU competes against those treatments on the basis of efficacy, limited side effects and cost- effectiveness. Other companies are working with HIFU for the minimally-invasive treatment of tumors including General Electric, Toshiba and Focus Surgery. Certain existing and potential competitors of the Company in HIFU may have substantially greater financial, research and development, sales and marketing and personnel resources than the Company and may have more experience in developing, manufacturing, marketing and supporting new products.
The Company believes that an important factor in the potential market for HIFU treatments will be the ability to make the substantial investments in research and development that will be required to bring the technology to market.

More information about the Company's HIFU division, click here