Researchers at Imperial College London and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust have released findings that document sustained cancer control a decade after focal therapy for prostate cancer.
The analysis, published on 17 July 2026 in the journal European Urology, tracked outcomes for 3477 men who received either high-intensity focused ultrasound or cryotherapy between 2004 and 2024. Treatment took place across 14 UK hospitals. At ten years, only two men had died from prostate cancer, producing a cancer-specific mortality rate of 0.1 per cent.
Cancer had spread outside the prostate in 3 per cent of cases. One in three men required further treatment. These figures match the cancer-specific mortality rates observed with more extensive procedures such as prostatectomy or radiotherapy.
The data, drawn from the largest and longest-running UK series of its kind, demonstrate that focal therapy delivers comparable survival while delivering a five-fold lower risk of side effects. Incontinence, erectile dysfunction and rectal problems occur far less frequently than with traditional whole-gland approaches. Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust revealed that focal therapy leads to a five-fold lower risk of side effects such as incontinence, erectile dysfunction and rectal problems compared with traditional radiotherapy or surgery.
Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust has reported that ten years after treatment only two men in the study had died from prostate cancer. The same organisation supplied the core dataset showing the study followed 3477 men treated with focal therapy using high-intensity focused ultrasound or cryotherapy between 2004 and 2024 across 14 UK hospitals.
Focal therapy treats only the cancerous areas of the prostate rather than removing or irradiating the entire gland. The approach seeks to preserve urinary, sexual and bowel function without compromising long-term disease control. The new evidence fills a previous gap in decade-long outcomes and strengthens the case for wider availability within NHS pathways.
