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Non-Invasive Prostate Cancer Treatment Debuts in Toronto

Ablatherm® HIFU, A Safe And Highly Effective Treatment For Prostate Cancer, Is Now Available In North America.

New York, April 4, 2005 — Ablatherm® High Intensity Focused Ultrasound, better known as Ablatherm® HIFU, a proven prostate cancer treatment practiced throughout Europe, is now available in North America with the opening of a new Ablatherm® HIFU clinic in Toronto, Ontario.

Prostate cancer is the leading cancer among men in North America and the second most common malignancy in males worldwide. Now a safe and effective prostate cancer treatment is available in North America as an alternative to the more invasive and side effect-prone treatments currently practiced.

The Ablatherm® HIFU prostate cancer treatment is now being offered at the Don Mills Surgical Unit in Toronto. The Don Mills Surgical Unit is a private surgical facility that is licensed by the Province of Ontario and under the direction of Dr. William Orovan, a board certified urologist and Chair of the Department of Surgery, McMaster University. Additionally, Dr. Orovan is the former president of the Ontario Medical Association. To learn more about the Ablatherm® HIFU treatment, please visit www.hifu.ca.

Ablatherm® HIFU has been used to treat prostate cancer patients for a number of years throughout Europe. Prostate cancer patients within the United States and Canada have traveled overseas to get the HIFU treatment, opting for this non-invasive and effective treatment over surgery and radiotherapy. Toronto is currently the only city in North America that has an Ablatherm® HIFU facility. With the opening of this new HIFU treatment center, trips to Europe for prostate cancer treatment are no longer necessary. Ablatherm® HIFU is a targeted procedure used to eliminate all cancerous prostate cells. The HIFU procedure takes between 1 to 3 hours depending on the size of the prostate and can be done in an outpatient facility. During the treatment, a probe is placed in the patient’s rectum after spinal or epidural anesthesia has been administered. The probe emits a beam of high intensity focused ultrasound that rapidly raises the temperature
inside the prostate to 85 degrees Celsius, thus destroying the prostate tissue.

The Ablatherm® HIFU procedure is a first line treatment for prostate cancer patients. This procedure can be repeated if the initial HIFU treatment is unsuccessful. The retreatment rate is approximately 10%. Ablatherm® HIFU does not limit the patients’ treatment options in any way, rather providing a safe initial course of action that can be used prior to exploring other options. Additionally, Ablatherm® HIFU can be performed on patients who have undergone radiation treatment in the past and experienced recurrent cancer. The HIFU procedure provides these patients with a treatment option when few others remain.

“This clinically proven treatment is a revolutionary advance in the ongoing fight against prostate cancer,” said Dr. John Warner, a Memorial Sloan-Kettering trained urooncologist practicing in Vancouver, British Columbia. “We are excited to finally bring the Ablatherm® HIFU treatment to North America so many more patients can discover its benefits.”

One Ablatherm® HIFU study done in Europe with 137 patients showed that 93% of patients had negative biopsies and 87% had Prostatic Specific Antigen (PSA) levels of less than 1, five years after having the Ablatherm® HIFU treatment. Another study done in Lyon, France, rendered similar results. These studies, along with many others, conclude that Ablatherm® HIFU is an effective prostate cancer treatment that offers patients a logical alternative to the other more invasive treatments commonly used.

About Prostate Cancer

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men in North America and is second only to lung cancer as a cause of cancer deaths in North American males. It is estimated that 39 million men in North America, Europe and Japan have prostate cancer. Each year, over 230,000 new cases of prostate cancer are detected in the United States representing one new case of prostate cancer every 2 minutes. Over 40,000 men will die of this disease each year.

About Ablatherm® HIFU Treatment

For additional information about Ablatherm® HIFU, please visit www.hifu.ca.