One in every four men with suspected prostate cancer can bypass a needless biopsy via an MRI scan if a new study is to be believed.
According to a study published in the British medical journal The Lancet, nearly 27 percent men with suspected prostate cancer can avoid unnecessary biopsy, which would bring down the number of over-diagnosed patients by 5 percent.
"Our results show that MP-MRI should be used before biopsy. Our study found that using the two tests could reduce over-diagnosis of harmless cancers by 5 [percent], prevent one in four men having an unnecessary biopsy, and improve the detection of aggressive cancers from 48 [percent] to 93 [percent]," says Dr. Hashim Ahmed, lead author of the study.
In many cases, a suspected patient is diagnosed with cancer that will not result in any damage during their lifetime.
Usually a biopsy test is performed on a patient whenever they experience any symptom related to prostate cancer or have a prostate specific antigen (PSA) test showing high levels of PSA protein in their blood.
The Risk Factor In Prostate Cancer
A report from the American Cancer Society estimates that prostate cancer will account for 26,730 deaths in 2017, alongside 161,360 new cases.
The trend shows that after skin cancer, men in America suffer mostly from prostate cancer. In terms of deaths concerning cancer, prostate cancer is ranked just behind lung cancer and colorectal cancer.
Reports suggest that out of every seven men, one man will be diagnosed with prostate cancer, Out of 39 men, one of them will die from the ailment. This disease is more frequent among older men, ones aged around 65 and above, while the average age at the time of diagnosis stands at 66.
Findings Of The Study
The latest study observed 576 men with suspected prostate cancer who underwent an MP-MRI scan followed by two types of biopsy in 11 NHS hospitals.
Initially, the patients underwent a template prostate mapping (TPM) biopsy, which was used as a control just to compare the accuracy of the MP-MRI and the standard biopsy.
The second biopsy was the Standard Transrectal Ultrasound-Guided (TRUS) biopsy, primarily used for diagnosing prostate cancer.
The TPM biopsy showed that less than half of the men in the study (40 percent) had an aggressive cancer.
In the United Kingdom alone, more than 100,000 prostate biopsies are performed every year and consequently, about 1 million of them in Europe.
Prostate cancer is a serious disease, however, most men who were diagnosed with prostate cancer did not die due to the ailment. Statistics show that more than 2.9 million men in the United States who were diagnosed with prostate cancer at some point of their lives are still living.
The study was published in the journal The Lancet.
Photo: Liz West | Flickr
