Prostate cancer screening using MRI for earlier diagnosis

MRI scans could be used to detect prostate cancer more accurately, according to researchers at UCL, King's College London and Imperial College London who are launching a new clinical study. The current prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood test is considered too unreliable for population screening, and the researchers will test for the first time if MRI scans could be used to screen men to pick up cancers earlier and more reliably, and help save lives. They will also study whether, combined with cutting-edge techniques such as genomics and machine learning, MRI scans can replace prostate biopsies. "Our recent studies have begun to show how MRI technology will transform prostate cancer screening and diagnosis. Now we're starting an ambitious new study, to combine MRI with the latest technologies - such a machine learning on MRI images and detecting DNA shed by cancers in blood - to see if we can find a way to make prostate cancer testing more reliable and maybe even do away with the need for biopsies altogether," said lead researcher Professor Emberton (Dean, UCL Medical Sciences). "We want to use MRI combined with new diagnostic tests to predict how the cancer will progress and to target the right treatment to the right person." Prostate cancer patients advising the study say they are particularly excited by the prospect of large reduction in biopsies, as they have serious side effects in the majority of patients, which include pain, bleeding, infections leading to sepsis, and urine retention (sudden inability to empty the bladder).