Ablation, has anyone heard of this type of treatment?

This is a treatment for prostate cancer. During prostate ablation procedure energy (such as heat, cold, lasers, or chemicals) are used to kill the cancer cells. Also may destroy surrounding normal prostate tissue.

You can search about it on the web, searching ablation for prostate cancer.

There is a physician at UCLA who has been specializing in this treatment for prostate for many year. https://www.uclahealth.org/providers/steven-raman You might send your records to him.

What everyone else said. Instead of removing the whole prostate, with ablation they just try to kill or remove the cancerous parts.

The risk is missing something; the benefit is (potentially) significantly-reduced side-effects.
https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/mayo-clinic-q-and-a-advances-in-ablation-for-prostate-cancer/

Only thing to remember is that they cannot biopsy something ‘ablated’. I had GreenLight laser ablation 7 yrs ago - worked to relieve BPH but that overgrowth could have been the cancer that was found 7 yrs later on biopsy.

What about ablation for an individual hot spot that might appear on recurrence?. I have been brainstorming the idea that my metastasis might only show a pea sized or similar tumor like the first recurrence and that might be a one and done.when I stop adt I can get a definitive petscan and if the tumor is accessible that might be less onerous than radiation series.

Well, if you are on ADT something in your testing - high Decipher? - or scans must have alerted your RO to put you on ADT to begin with, right?
Plenty of men never go on ADT even with Gleason 7’s so did you have a biopsy that showed a certain aggressive cellular pattern?
My own limited experience has shown me that ADT is for stubborn or more aggressive cases to playing whack-a-mole with these tumors is bound to miss something along the way and give it a chance to spread? Good question for your RO!

I received an ablation treatment known as Irreversible Electroporation (IRE). Here is some info from my experience:

1) If you’ve had a biopsy, request a decipher test on the tissue from your biopsy. This is a step beyond the Gleason score and helps determine how aggressive your cancer is.

2) Give thought to getting a second opinion from a Cancer Center of Excellence. Here's a link:
https://www.cancer.gov/research/infrastructure/cancer-centers/find
3) If your tumor(s) are contained within the prostate, focal treatment is something to look in to. These treatments use a variety of ways to ablate (kill) the tumor(s) without removal or radiation. Look up things like HIFU, cryotherapy, Irreversible Electroporation (IRE), and others.
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/focal-therapy-for-prostate-cancer
My PSA score that got the urologist's attention was 4.25. A follow-up MRI indicated two tumors, both contained within the prostate, and both with a PI-RADS of 4. My biopsy showed a Gleason score of 3+4=7 (intermediate risk, favorable) and my decipher results indicated low risk, making me a candidate for active surveillance or focal therapy. I chose focal treatment because one of the tumors was abutting the edge of the prostate. I had the IRE treatment in January 2024 at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa. After the treatment, I had some relatively mild incontinence which has mostly cleared up. I also had some blood in my urine for about six weeks after the treatment, but that has totally cleared up. My sexual function is unchanged from before the treatment.

In August, my PSA was down to 1.95. The follow up multiparametric MRI (mpMRI), done the same day, showed “post ablation changes of the prostate with no new recurrent tumor in the treatment area and no new suspicious lesions in the prostate”. My doctor said that later, if there is an indication that cancer has returned, I can consider an addition IRE treatment, removal or radiation.

Focal treatment is definitely not for everyone, but with the proper set of circumstances, it would be an alternative worth considering.

Best wishes for a great outcome for whatever treatment you decide upon.

I did the Tulsa Pro ablation in July. Full write up if my experience and decision process on the thread:
Tulsa Pro Experience, Mayo Clinic MN – July 2024.

NanoKnife is being performed on a worldwide basis . It's an outpatient treatment ( no knife involved Google it ) .
The UK , EU , Canada , Australia , Turkey the USA etc etc .
It's typically a paid procedure . Big in Germany .
I have 2 associates who had it -- They are very pleased .
Also Google : Niagara Now - Nanoknife by William Thomas . He is Canadian and had his in Germany . He was unaware that several hospitals and clinics perform the procedure in Toronto , very close to his home .

Thanks, that was interesting. I just did a bit of research out of curiosity (I wouldn't have been a candidate), and OHIP in Ontario covers the intitial NanoKnife consultations, but not the actual treatment (yet).