A Gisborne-based research institute is launching an MRI-guided treatment for prostate cancer – the first of its kind in Australasia.
An MRI-guided prostate ablation is a minimally invasive treatment that uses ultrasound energy to precisely heat and destroy prostate cancer tissue while the patient is inside an MRI scanner.
The MRI is used to both guide and monitor the treatment, making sure that only the target tissue is heated to temperatures sufficient to kill the cancer.
The service will provide an additional treatment option for men whose prostate cancer has been detected early and remains localised within the prostate gland, before it has spread to nearby tissues, lymph nodes, or other parts of the body.
The procedure is performed as an outpatient under general anaesthesia inside an MRI scanner and is completed as a single treatment over three to four hours, avoiding invasive surgery or several weeks of radiation therapy. Patients return home the same day, and most can resume normal activities within a few days.
The minimally invasive approach reduces the incidence of post-treatment impotence and incontinence compared with surgery and radiotherapy.
Mātai Medical Research Institute lead clinician Daniel Cornfeld said the treatment helps provide patients more options.
"The procedure is really designed for people who are really averse to having surgery, don't want to have radiation and want to keep their continence and potency," Cornfeld said.
It's also hoped the procedure will fight stigmas and leads more men to seek treatment before their cancer spreads.
"There's a wider range of treatments that people feel more comfortable going into it. That 'OK, if it's positive and I have prostate cancer,' I don't have to just have radiotherapy or surgery; there's a whole list of things I can have and I hope that this procedure becomes a mainstay of one of those options."
The treatment's just one of the leading health treatments the Mātai Medical Research Institute is set to establish in the hopes Tairāwhiti can one day become a health destination for travellers.
"If you had asked someone in Gisborne 10 years ago 'what do you think of people flying in from Australia to have a medical procedure in Gisborne?', they would've laughed you out of town. The truth is that's actually a possibility," Cornfeld said.
"At Mātai, we keep surprising ourselves with what you can do in a small town if you put your mind to it."
Cornfeld said despite being remote and "very rural" with no universities in sight, it was Mātai's strong relationship with major centres that had led to the treatment finding a home at the facility.
"This treatment came out of the relationship we have with Stanford University where our founder used to work," Cornfeld said.
Current treatment options involve weekly chemotherapy or invasive surgery – both of which can lead to wider men's health complications. The new procedure was much less invasive with fewer complications.
Barry Leslie lived in Australia and travelled to Canada for treatment in May. He said the procedure was essentially painless.
"Only pain that I had was from the introduction of instruments to perform the procedure," he said, adding that he walked around 20,000 steps over the following two days afterwards.
Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in New Zealand, with more than 4000 men diagnosed every year.
'Welcome piece of good news'
Prostate Cancer Foundation chief executive Peter Dickens welcomed the announcement.
"Unfortunately, men in New Zealand don't have access to as many treatments as our counterparts say in Australia and the UK," Dickens said.
"This is a welcome piece of good news that this new innovative treatment is going to be available, not just for the men of Gisborne, but hopefully the health authority is going to be able to make it available to lots of men throughout the country."
Dickens added that Gisborne was "at the forefront of a number of innovations to do with prostate cancer diagnostics and treatment".
"To have this particular treatment method available in Gisborne is a real boon for the region. We talk a lot about health in New Zealand being confined, or good health being confined to the major centres. It's really exciting for people in Gisborne to have access to this innovative Australasia-first treatment."
While the treatment is currently only available privately, Mātai hoped to provide the service to the public in the future.
Health NZ said they welcomed any new initiative, resource or technology that improved health outcomes for men.
Mātai's new initiative is currently being considered to determine its clinical effectiveness.
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