Quite rightly, the NHS wants to offer treatments that are proven to deliver good long-term outcomes.

While reliable data shows  that after one year of treatment, 90% of clinically significant cancer is eliminated by focal therapies, they are also:

• Undergoing studies into long-term outcomes, which are still underway but not yet published.
• Not fully NICE approved.
• Often expensive, particularly as there’s a high likelihood of needing more scans and possibly treatment down the line.

However, dedicated specialists within the NHS are currently offering the use of focal therapies at centres of excellence such as Imperial College, UCLH and University Hospital Southampton. 

NHS surgeons often understandably resort to whole gland therapies particularly if they think they can’t fully trust that an MRI scan is delivering a precise diagnosis. That makes it safer for them to treat the whole prostate.