In a recent video interview with Bob Giordano, President and CEO of Medifocus Dr. Augustine Y. Cheung explains how his Prolieve BPH Treatment works.
Bob Giordano is a Principal at Launchpad IR. He has worked in the financial services industry for 35 years and was originally trained to be a lawyer. He worked with investor relations, focusing on emerging small cap mineral resource and life sciences companies.
Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH) is a non-cancerous urological disease in which the prostate (a walnut-sized gland that preserves and transports seminal fluid and sperm) enlarges and constricts around the urethra and restricts the passage of urine. This frequently enlarges with age, and the resulting restriction requires the patient to exert excessive pressure on the bladder in order to urinate. The inability to urinate properly typically results in bladder infections and/or kidney damage.
In the video, Cheung says that he wants to use the Prolieve device for cancer, such as prostate cancer, in addition to BPH. He explains that Prolieve is more beneficial than the use of drugs, surgery, or microwave treatment that swells cells. Prolieve uses heat and pressure from a dilation balloon to expand the urethra, which creates an effect like ironing.
He says:
“The combination of heating plus pressure, which is generated by the dilation balloon, creates what we call an effect that is like ironing. You know, you use pressure and heat to stiffen out a wrinkled shirt, right? Same kind of thing—it will stiffen out the urethra’s lining so that the urethra actually gets open and then stays open. We have created what we call a biological stand, so that you can keep this remaining open for several weeks to over months, to allow the patient the pleasure of not having to wear [a] drain tube and still get the better part of the microwave heating…”
Cheung states that this procedure is far superior than the other BPH technologies because of the “biological stand.” He explains that Medifocus has worked on 60,000 patients and has an agreement with the Federal Drug Administration to conduct a five-year study. Every patient is happy, and there are no side effects after the procedure.
Cheung explains that the procedure is not burdensome. Patients are able to undergo treatment in a 45-minute office procedure and do not need surgery or anesthesia. The procedure includes local anesthesia and the insertion of a catheter and people can easily leave afterward.
He says:
“The insertion of the catheter into the urethra takes five minutes [and] treatment [takes] a half an hour. The total procedure time [is] 45 minutes. After 45 minutes, the patients don’t wear a urine catheter and they don’t have any side effects because of no sedation. They go home. So that is unlike any other thing.”
Watch the full video below.
Cheung founded and was the CEO of Celsion Corporation. He is a well-known microwave expert and was also a professor at the University of Maryland, where he received a PhD in Electrical Engineering. He successfully developed devices and pharmaceuticals for a tumor targeting cancer treatment that uses multiple focused heat.