NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A new microwave thermotherapy (ProstaLund Feedback Treatment; PLFT) is less costly than transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) for treating benign prostatic hyperplasia, according to a report in the March BJU International.

PLFT has recently been shown to be as effective as TURP for treating benign prostatic hyperplasia, the authors explain, but the long-term effectiveness and associated costs have yet to be compared.

Dr. Anders Mattiasson from University Hospital Lund, Sweden and colleagues examined the clinical experience with the two treatments and estimated the 1-year costs of PLFT and TURP and those of re-interventions for up to 3 years.

The effectiveness of the two treatments did not differ significantly after a mean follow-up of 16.3 months after the intervention, the authors report.

Total costs for the first year after TURP ranged from 3106 Euros/patient in an inpatient registry to 3264 Euros/patient in a chart review of participants in a clinical trial, the report indicates, whereas first-year costs after PLFT ranged from only 1763 Euros/patient in the clinical trial to 1924 Euros/patient in the chart review.

Total 3-year costs after PLFT were estimated at 2138 to 2151 Euros/patient, the researchers note, while total 3-year costs after TURP were estimated at 3185 Euros/patient.

"Evidence is being built up that microwave thermotherapy with feedback technique in the vast majority of patients gives comparable results as TURP when measured both objectively and subjectively," Dr. Mattiasson told Reuters Health.

"Advantages of the minimally invasive approach [include] office-based treatment, a much lower rate of serious adverse events related to the lower urinary tract, including a lower hospitalization rate post-treatment, and, according to our results...a significantly lower cost level," he said.

"No other minimally invasive method has been able to challenge TURP as the 'gold standard' as the microwave technique has," Dr. Mattiasson continued.

"The re-intervention rate after PLFT is, so far, higher than for TURP," Dr. Mattiasson added, "but for the vast majority of the patients the two methods seem clinically equivalent."

BJU Int 2004;93:543-548

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