Milford Regional has new way to detect prostate cancers

File photo Milford Regional Medical Center is providing two new prostate cancer detection technologies.

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By Zachary Comeau

The Milford Regional Medical Center is offering two new technologies for detecting prostate cancers possibly able to detect cancers other methods may have missed.

In the announcement earlier this month, the hospital said it is the first in the region to offer the approach, however, UMass Memorial Hospital-Marlborough said it began offering the technology last summer.

The new technologies includes an advanced MRI and 3D imaging system.

According to the hospital, a patient would first undergo a multiparametric MRI than can better detect invisible cancers in the prostate. Those images are then fused with real-time ultrasound images to create a 3D high-definition map of the prostate, allowing doctors to accurately target any visible suspicious areas.

With a 3D imaging and navigation system, doctors are better able to identify and more accurately biopsy suspicious areas, the hospital said.

Finding the precise location of cancer in a prostate gland has historically been challenging, as conventional prostate biopsies are deemed blind since doctors can’t easily view the specific location of any abnormal tissue, the hospital said.

If caught early, prostate cancer can be easily cured through robotic surgery, radioactive seed implantation or external beam radiation therapy, all of which can be performed at the hospital.