New Method Detects Prostate Cancer With Greater Accuracy: Biopsy With Fusion Technology

Classic Prostate Biopsy

The classic prostate biopsy, although safe and effective, presents some significant disadvantages.

• It is an invasive procedure with a chance of complications (even if small), so it must be done with the greatest possible precision;
• Aggressive prostate cancer may not be detected by this classic method due to random sampling;
• Well-differentiated and small lesions may be diagnosed, which have no clinical significance and do not require any treatment.

Multiparametric Magnetic Resonance Imaging (mpMRI)

To overcome the disadvantages of classical biopsy, in recent years a method of detailed imaging of the prostate, Multiparametric Magnetic Tomography (mpMRI), has been used. With this technique, foci in the prostate that are likely to contain cancer cells are identified, allowing the detection and evaluation of the extent of clinically significant prostate cancer. Based on mpMRI information, targeted - and not random - biopsy of suspicious areas follows.

In addition, mpMRI allows to determine the extent of the disease (staging) with great accuracy before performing surgery or radiation therapy.

The establishment of mpMRI as a diagnostic tool in patients with suspected prostate cancer allows to avoid the inconvenience of an unnecessary biopsy, but also to perform the biopsy when indicated with maximum accuracy and safety. However, the MRI image is not sufficient to make decisions about further therapeutic manipulations, since the histological examination after biopsy is required. Due to the nature of the examination, obtaining biopsies from foci imaged on MRI is very difficult in the MRI setting.

A recent innovation, Fusion Technology comes to connect the two technologies, Multiparametric MRI (which detects the suspicious foci) and Rectal Ultrasound (which guides the biopsy). In this way, the foci that are visible in the MRI image are identified as targets and the corresponding position is determined precisely and in real time in the ultrasound. In this way, suspicious sites are sampled with great precision, thus turning a prostate biopsy from random and blind to targeted.

Advantages of Multiparametric Magnetic Resonance Imaging (mpMRI)

Based on a large series of scientific studies, this innovative technology is characterized by a number of advantages, such as:

• Timely and accurate diagnosis by fusing MRI and Ultrasound images in real time;
• Reducing the likelihood that clinically significant prostate cancer will go undiagnosed;
• Precise navigation and mapping of suspicious areas in difficult-to-access parts of the prostate;
• Avoiding diagnosis of clinically insignificant prostate cancer (and avoiding treatment side effects);
• Safe active monitoring of patients with non-aggressive prostate cancers that do not require immediate treatment;
• Complete investigation of patients who have already undergone a biopsy in the past with a negative result;
• Short, painless and safe procedure, since it is performed under anesthesia, it has a short hospital stay of a few hours and an excellent side effect profile (very low risk of infection).

Prostate biopsy using Fusion technology is the latest innovation in the early diagnosis of prostate cancer, as it increases the probability of detecting clinically significant prostate cancer by up to 30%. After its wide application abroad, it is now also accessible for patients in Cyprus.