St. Bernards performs first non-invasive prostate cancer treatment in Arkansas

JONESBORO, Ark. (KAIT) - St. Bernards Medical Center is changing the game in treating prostate cancer with its new non-invasive treatment.

Dr. Emma Jacobs and her team at St. Bernards used a high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) from FocalOne Robotics.

“This procedure is kind of focused on guys that are in between and have intermediate to low-risk prostate cancer,” Jacobs said. “We do a non-invasive treatment that uses ultrasound to target the cancer in the prostate and treat just that.”

Byron Sparkman is a prostate cancer survivor and has been cancer-free for three years. He said that this procedure was not around when he went through treatment. He chose surgery.

He said that the biggest thing with other prostate treatments is the after-effects.

“That’s why it’s important for people to know what treatments are available and what you choose to do and what you have to deal with afterward,” Sparkman said.

“Big bad things like long-term trouble urination or trouble with sexual issues the risk with this is much much lower than what the other things we have treat prostate cancer with,” Jacobs said.

To be able to be treated with this new procedure, the cancer has to be contained within the prostate.

“One of the things I like about this treatment is that we map out the entire prostate that just has the cancer or lesion itself,” Jacobs said. “It doesn’t cause a lot of side effects, it’s very customized to the patient.”

“I think it would be ideal, I would think the side effects would not be near as intensive,” Sparkman said. “I could see that being a lot less invasive of your mental problem because there is a mental part of it.”

Dr. Jacobs said the procedure takes about an hour to complete and that the patient goes home the same day. They are excited to see what more they can do with this new technology

“A lot of men are really nervous to even get their prostate cancer diagnosed because they’ve heard so many bad things about the treatment,” Jacobs said. “I think this is going to make men a lot more confident that there’s non-invasive, low-risk treatments for this.”

“It’s something that can be prevented. I’ve had four different cancers and every one of them was taken care of because we caught them early,” Sparkman said. “If you do have the cancer, knowing the lesion scores are and the other different scores and how aggressive that cancer can be, that is so important for you to know and be able to respond to that.

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