Health Spotlight | Burning away prostate cancer
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — After skin cancer, prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the US.
For the men who have beat prostate cancer once, 20% to 30% will show signs of recurrence after the five-year mark following their initial treatment.
Another round of therapies can be complicated—reports on a new treatment that is giving these men more options.
Whether it’s hiking, birdwatching, or white-water rafting, Bill Sedivy can’t get enough of the great outdoors.
“My passion is the outdoors,” Bill said.
A routine annual physical in 2014 changed everything when his doctor noticed his PSA levels were elevated. It was prostate cancer.
“I received radiation therapy and treatments. It slowed me for a good year,” Bill said.
He went into remission and then in September 2023, the cancer came back. Since he had radiation for his initial treatment, Sedivy’s options were limited.
“What’s unique with after radiation is any treatment afterward is very challenging, particularly surgery. Usually, that’s the only option for most men who have had radiation, and the cancer came back,” said Zeyad Schwen, MD, Urologic Oncologist at Cleveland Clinic.
Sedivy’s doctors proposed full removal of the prostate, which he didn’t want to do. He got a second opinion, which led him to Dr. Zeyad Schwen. Schwen said Sedivy was a perfect candidate for the salvage HIFU procedure.
“Salvage HIFU is a promising newer option for people who have had a recurrence in their prostate,” Schwen said.
During the outpatient procedure, doctors direct focused ultrasound waves to heat up the prostate tissue and kill the cancer cells, while keeping the prostate intact.
Compared to other surgeries, Schwen says, there’s “Less sexual and urinary side effects as well as a much quicker recovery time.”
This was good news for Sedivy. A month after the procedure, he was well enough to travel to Costa Rica.
“I’m hoping … I’m hoping that, that procedure will give me another decade of normal life to do what I love to do and be with the people I love,” Bill said.
Unlike traditional HIFU, Salvage HIFU is only for people whose cancer has returned and has not spread outside the prostate.
Bill Sedivy credits his annual screening for catching his cancer early both times. Doctors recommend men begin PSA screenings around age 50.
This story was created from a script aired on WISH-TV. Health Spotlight is presented by Community Health Network.