Overview
The SONA FUSION Registry is an observational study designed to evaluate the long-term effectiveness and safety of the Sonablate High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) system. This study focuses on adult men who have been treated for localized prostate cancer, benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) with urinary symptoms, or a combination of both conditions. The registry collects real-world medical data from multiple clinics globally to better understand how well the HIFU treatment controls disease and affects urinary and sexual function over a 10- to 20-year period.
The study includes two groups of participants: a retrospective group of patients who previously received treatment, and a prospective group of newly treated patients receiving standard clinical care. No experimental interventions are assigned for the purpose of this study. To protect participant privacy, all medical data is completely de-identified and stripped of direct identifiers before being securely transferred to the central coordinating center at Indiana University. The ultimate goal of this research is to improve patient care protocols, advance men's health knowledge, and establish evidence-based guidelines for minimally invasive prostate treatments.
Description
Traditional surgical interventions for prostate cancer and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) are often associated with significant morbidity. While high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) has emerged as a recognized, minimally invasive alternative, existing clinical evidence often lacks prospective, long-term follow-up and standardized, validated outcome assessments.
To systematically track and evaluate these standard-of-care interventions, the SONA FUSION Registry serves as a central repository for the consolidation of real-world clinical data from leading academic and clinical centers globally. The registry is designed to refine HIFU treatment protocols, improve patient counseling practices, and establish evidence-based scientific foundations for the standardized adoption of robotic HIFU technology.
The central repository at Indiana University receives and maintains exclusively de-identified research data. The protocol structurally prevents re-identification by mandating the permanent removal of all direct identifiers at the local site level prior to transmission. Furthermore, clinical dates are strictly protected via temporal masking, converting all temporal data to relative study days-and a non-negotiable 180-day post-procedure delay is enforced before any prospective data is authorized for abstraction.
To continuously validate these safeguards, an independent Honest Broker conducts an annual audit of a 20 percent sample of the database, ensuring the central research team remains definitively blinded to all patient identifiers.
Eligibility
Inclusion Criteria:
- Male with diagnosed localized prostate cancer or BPH (benign prostatic hyperplasia)
- Having undergone Sonablate HIFU ablation as part of standard clinical care, with all central data transmission subject to a mandatory 180-day post-procedure delay.
Exclusion Criteria:
- Prostate size or lesion location precluding effective HIFU target acquisition (prostate volume \>100 CC for prostate cancer or \>80 CC for BPH)
- Confirmed metastatic prostate cancer
- Prior radical prostatectomy
- Prostates with large calcifications (\>10mm causing shadowing)
- Prior rectal wall surgery or inability to undergo transrectal ultrasound
