Southampton experts are to use a groundbreaking technique to treat prostate cancer.

Clinicians at Southampton’s university hospitals are set to become the first in the UK to treat prostate cancer using frozen needles guided by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

The MRI is a type of scan that uses magnetic fields and radio waves to produce detailed images of the inside of the body.

Thanks to this technique clinicians will be able to better see the tumour and guide frozen needles.

Hollow needles will be placed into the prostate and passed through gases which cool rapidly.

This will allow experts to destroy cancer cells in the affected part of the body.

The new technique will provide clinicians with more details and will enable more accuracy when destroying tumours.

Most patients who undergo the treatment, which takes around two hours to complete under general anaesthetic, will be able to return home the same day.

The non-surgical procedure, known as MRI-guided cryotherapy, will be performed by urologists and radiologists at Southampton General Hospital supported by clinicians from Strasbourg, France.

Tim Dudderidge, a consultant urological surgeon at University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, said: “This is a fantastic development in how we deliver cryotherapy for patients with prostate cancer. The tumour is much more visible on MRI and we can place needles to get optimum ice coverage into the most aggressive part of the tumour.”

Mr Dudderidge and consultant radiologist Dr Alex King will perform the first case of MRI-guided cryotherapy at Southampton General Hospital today (June 27), alongside consultant abdominal radiologist Dr David Breen, who pioneered the use of the technique for kidney tumours.

The treatment offers an alternative for men who have undergone unsuccessful radiotherapy and are not suitable for High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU), a technique which uses high frequency sound waves.