Prostate cancer diagnosis: Efficacy of a simple electromagnetic MRI-TRUS fusion method to target biopsies

Abstract

Objective: To assess that transrectal ultrasound guidance (TRUS) targeted biopsies (TB) aimed with an easy to use electronic real-time fusion registration device have a higher rate of prostate cancer (PC) detection than standard biopsies (SB).

Material and methods: This prospective study included 130 patients referred for TRUS biopsies after suspicious MRI. They underwent 16-core SB and 2 to 3 cores in each MRI suspicious area, using a fusion software. We noted SB and TB positivity for PC and Gleason score (GS). We used the McNemar test to compare SB and TB, with a statistical significance p<0.05.

Results: Among 130 patients, 68.5% had PC. Additional time due to the fusion registration was 3.3 min. One hundred fifteen patients (88.4%) had pathological findings on the histological analysis (prostate cancer n=89, others n=26). TB diagnosed PC in 75 patients with negative SB. Positivity rate for PC was significantly higher for TB than SB (p=0.03). Among highly suspicious MRI lesions, detection rate of histological abnormalities using SB and TB was 96% with 79.7% of PC. Most PC that TB diagnosed alone were clinically significant (86.3%).

Conclusion: TRUS biopsies performed with a simple MRI and US electronic fusion is an unrestrainedly method to increase PC diagnosis.

Keywords: Biopsy; Diagnosis; Interventional; Magnetic resonance imaging; Neoplasms; Prostate; Ultrasonography.