Targeted Biopsy Better Than Traditional Methods for Prostate Cancer Diagnosis

Targeted biopsy with the ultrasound coupled MRI could be more effective than traditional biopsy method for prostate cancer diagnosis, finds a new study.

MRI coupled with ultrasound biopsy can reduce the chances of misdiagnosis in patients with prostate cancer which generally occurs in traditional biopsy methods, finds a new study. The findings of this study are published in the journal of Urologic Oncology.

This data could provide a new standard of care when screening men for prostate cancer and could lead to more efficient practices, saving time and money and improving diagnosis times for patients.

Patient Selection For Specific Prostate Cancer Treatment Now Made Easy
With the help of this new insight patient selection for specific prostate cancer treatment can be made possible.

‘Coupling MRI with ultrasound to visualize suspicious lesions in the prostate gland and targeting the biopsy to that particular area can outperform standard prostate biopsy in patients with a prior negative prostate biopsy. ’

"In this study, we used a large multi-institutional sample size," says Abhinav Sidana, MD, director of urologic oncology and assistant professor in the Division of Urology at the UC College of Medicine and the corresponding author on this study. "In men with suspicion of having prostate cancer, standard (collecting 12 samples from the prostate), or saturation (collecting 20-40 samples from the prostate), biopsy, a more randomized approach, has traditionally been a principal method for diagnosis. However, this can lead to overdiagnosis of clinically insignificant cancer, meaning prostate cancer where treatment is not needed, underdiagnosis of clinically significant cancer, meaning prostate cancer where treatment is needed, and has a high false-negative rate, meaning tests that read negative for cancer when it is truly malignant.

"Patients with continued suspicion of prostate cancer and negative prior prostate biopsy are a diagnostic challenge, and around 38 percent will undergo repeat standard or saturation biopsy over five years in order to obtain a diagnosis. Unfortunately, repeating this has little efficacy in identifying cancerous lesions with only a 10 to 25 percent cancer detection rate even after the fourth repeat biopsy. These multiple re-biopsies also lead to increased cost, delayed diagnosis and could contribute to the progression of a patient's disease."

Sidana, who is also a UC Health urologist and a member of the UC Cancer Institute, says that MRI fusion biopsy has emerged as a promising alternative because of its ability to help physicians identify clinically significant cancers and that several single-institution studies have found the benefit of this method in detecting prostate cancer in patients with prior negative prostate biopsies. However, the analysis in relation to the number of prior negative biopsies a patient had was limited.

Molecules for Promise as New Prostate Cancer Drugs Screened
Researchers have measured systematically how efficient molecules are at suppressing the activity of a protein associated with prostate and other cancers.

"We wanted to investigate the efficacy of fusion biopsy in comparison to systematic biopsy in the detection of clinically significant prostate cancer and to determine the effect the number of prior negative biopsies had on cancer detection with each method," he says.

The cases of 779 patients--each with a history of one or more negative biopsies who also underwent MRI biopsy fusion--from four institutions were analyzed making it one of the largest studies in this population, says Sidana. Institutions included the National Cancer Institute in Maryland; Northwell Health in New York; the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine; and State University of New York Upstate Medical University.

Simple Ways to Fight Side Effects of Hormone Therapy for Prostate Cancer
A new study has proved that diet and moderate exercise can overcome prostate cancer patients lose strength and muscle mass and fat deposition.

The average age of patients was 63. Of the 779 patients, cancer was detected in 346 patients (44 percent), and the clinically significant cancer detection rate was 30.7 percent with fusion biopsy detecting 26.3 percent (205 cases) and systematic biopsy detecting only 4.4 percent (34 cases).

"Of all cancers detected by each method, fusion biopsy detected a higher proportion of clinically significant cancer when compared to standard biopsy," Sidana adds. "Fusion biopsy also outperformed standard biopsy in finding high-risk prostate cancer. While patients with a higher number of prior prostate biopsies had a poorer cancer detection rate on standard prostate biopsy, detection on fusion biopsy stayed constant and did not decrease in patients with a higher number of prior prostate biopsies, thus proving it to be more accurate in finding cancers."

Green Tea Might Help Patients With Prostate Cancer
Prostate cancer is currently one of the most common male cancers and the second leading cause of cancer death in men. Findings from a recent study

Sidana says these results show that the fusion biopsy technique should be used in patients with suspicion of prostate cancer.

"These findings may work to change or improve the standard of care and could help in avoiding unnecessary biopsies, saving patients and health care systems money, as well as helping to diagnose cancers earlier, improving patient care and quality of life," he says.

Source-Eurekalert