The IDEAL stages of surgical innovation: Distinguishing the development and exploration stages

摘要

It is with great interest that we read the description of the INDEX study, a multicenter prospective observational study to assess the use of high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) for localized prostate cancer [1]. Treatment of areas of the prostate that harbor cancer, while leaving uninvolved areas of the prostate gland preserved, represents an innovative approach to prostate cancer therapy that is of tremendous interest to urological oncologists. The on-going study that was prospectively designed according to the IDEAL recommendations [2], promises to contribute high quality evidence to inform our understanding of the potential role of focal HIFU in patients with low and intermediate risk disease.