Prostate MRI scans increase cancer detection & reduce overdiagnosis

A large international study led by UCL and UCLH researchers, has found that an MRI scan and targeted prostate biopsies, are significantly better at making a positive prostate cancer diagnosis than standard biopsies. The PRECISION Trial randomly allocated 500 men with suspected prostate cancer from 23 international centres and found that using MRI to perform prostate biopsies leads to more of the harmful prostate cancers, and fewer harmless cancers being diagnosed, than the standard way of performing biopsies. Researchers found the MRI approach can also reduce the number of men undergoing biopsy by 28%, as men who do not present with abnormal areas in the prostate may be able to avoid biopsy altogether. This is particularly important as over 1 million men in Europe undergo biopsy every year and biopsies can be uncomfortable, costly, and carry a risk of infection. Currently men who have suspected prostate cancer, typically undergo a standard biopsy test called a TRUS (TRansrectal UltraSound guided prostate biopsy), which requires a doctor to pass an ultrasound probe into the back passage and takes a sample of cells from the prostate that might contain cancer, however TRUS biopsy has been known to have limitations and can miss harmful cancers and diagnose harmless cancers that don't need identifying. Dr Veeru Kasivisvanathan, from the UCL Surgery & Interventional Science, funded by a National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Doctoral Fellowship, presented the results of the PRECISION Trial at the 33rd European Association of Urology Congress, Copenhagen, with simultaneous publication in the New England Journal of Medicine.