A high-pressure water jet treatment could help prostate cancer patients avoid one of the main complications of existing therapies – erectile dysfunction.

A UK-led international clinical trial is recruiting 280 patients to see if the technique to remove cancerous cells, known as aquablation, could prevent incontinence as well as erectile dysfunction, which affects up to 80 per cent of those who undergo a radical prostatectomy (removal of the prostate). By eradicating only cancerous tissue, it is hoped the treatment will preserve the nerves that control erections and ejaculation.

Current treatments for prostate cancer, which affects around 60,000 men in the UK a year, include chemotherapy, radiotherapy and hormone therapy – where drugs are used to suppress the production of testosterone, as it can feed tumour growth.

But around 5,000 men a year with localised cancer (where it has not spread beyond the prostate) undergo a radical prostatectomy.

Although very successful at eradicating cancer, the surgery carries a high risk of damage to sensitive nerves and arteries that keep the penis in good working order.

Modern techniques – known as nerve-sparing surgery – can reduce the risks. However, some surgeons aren’t able to offer this.

Aquablation has been in use on the NHS for years in the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), or an enlarged prostate.

A non-cancerous, age-related condition, BPH causes more frequent urination (as the swollen prostate presses on the bladder) or trouble passing urine (because it is pressing on the urethra, which ­carries urine out of the body).

A high-pressure water jet treatment could help prostate cancer patients avoid one of the main complications of existing therapies: erectile dysfunction

Current treatments for prostate cancer, which affects around 60,000 men in the UK a year, include chemotherapy, radiotherapy and hormone therapy

Treatment often involves drugs, but around 50,000 men a year with BPH end up having surgery to reduce the prostate. This, too, ­carries a risk of impotence and urinary incontinence.

Various therapies have been developed to reduce these side-effects in both BPH and cancer.

These include laser treatments, where a focused beam is directed on to the diseased tissue to destroy it; and radiofrequency ablation, where electric currents are used. However, the heat used in these treatments can also damage healthy tissue.

Aquablation instead relies on room-temperature salt water to blast it away.

Trials show it is very effective at easing BPH symptoms and, crucially, preserves erectile function in about 90 per cent of men.

Now it is being tested for men with early-stage prostate cancer (where the disease has not spread beyond the gland).