Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to support the development of the evidence base for high-intensity focused ultrasound therapy for prostate cancer.
The National Institute for Health Research has funded, and supported, several research studies on high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) therapy for prostate cancer over the last five years. This includes an award of £677,000 for the feasibility of a randomised controlled trial of partial prostate ablation (via HIFU) versus radical prostatectomy in intermediate risk unilateral clinically localised prostate cancer.