The Island has become the latest destination for a prostate cancer treatment yet to be endorsed by the US Food and Drug Administration.

High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) is now available at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital.

Through a device called the Sonablate (R) 500, it works by destroying prostatic tissue through extreme heat, produced from focused ultrasound waves.

It is described as a "minimally-invasive" prostate cancer treatment. Company US HIFU says compared to other therapies such as surgery or radiation, it has less significant side effects.

Already, more than 30 countries have medical facilities which use the technology. However, the device has yet to gain the approval of the FDA.

According to a PR Newswire article by United Business Media, this means patients from the US are travelling to international hospitals to undergo treatment.

The programme began in 2004 and is currently in the final phase of its FDA clinical trials.

The United Business Media article states: "FDA has made no decision as to the safety or efficacy of the Sonablate (R) 500 for the treatment of prostate cancer."

Donald Thomas, Bermuda Hospitals Board chief of staff, told PR Newswire: "We are very pleased to be able to offer this treatment.

"As we are only about a two-hour flight from the eastern US we can offer this high-tech procedure very close to home for some US patients in a stunningly beautiful island setting."

US HIFU CEO Steve Puckett Jr. said: "We were strategic in our selection of Bermuda so we could open up access to Sonablate HIFU for interested patients and physicians in the northeast.

"For ease of transportation, we expect to see a good number of patients and doctors from that area and the eastern seaboard in general, but Bermuda's King Edward VII Memorial Hospital is just one more high-calibre choice open to any patients and doctors throughout the country."

He said: "The current therapy involves whole gland ablation but we are looking ahead to the focal treatment of prostate cancer, beginning with the upcoming UK clinical trials.

"Bermuda is slated to be the international specialty site for our focal HIFU procedure."

The Sonablate (R) 500 device is currently focused on treating primary and recurrent prostate cancer, but US HIFU is researching technological advancements.

Yesterday Blake Marler, spokeswoman for US HIFU, told this newspaper: "We have two clinical trials ongoing. The first is for primary prostate cancer, on first diagnosis, and the other is for recurrent prostate cancer, after radiation failure.

"Both of those trials are in the final phase, phase three. We are going through the process as quickly and as efficiently as we can, but we don't have an end date yet."

She said: "This is the first treatment for prostate cancer which has undergone such rigorous clinical trials. Other treatments have been 'grandfathered' in.

"Prior to a certain year it was not necessary to undergo this testing, but up to this point, this HIFU technology did not exist for prostate cancer."

US HIFU is a private health care company based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The first two US patients to be treated in Bermuda with Sonablate HIFU were admitted this month by Stephen Scionti, New York University clinical associate professor of urology.

Yesterday Deborah Titterton Narraway, Bermuda Cancer and Health Centre spokeswoman, told The Royal Gazette: "We are not in a position to comment on procedures being done by the Bermuda Hospitals Board. However ,we support any treatment options that physicians can recommend for their patients that can be done locally.

"That is not to say that we are for or against High Intensity Focused Ultrasound."