Study shows more effective method for detecting prostate cancer

Each year, 1 million men in the U.S. undergo biopsies to determine whether they have prostate cancer. The biopsy procedure traditionally has been guided by ultrasound imaging, but this method cannot clearly display the location of tumors in the prostate gland.A multidisciplinary team of UCLA physicians has found that a new method, which includes biopsy guided by magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, can be used together with the traditional method to increase the rate of prostate cancer detection.Ultrasound has been used to visualize the prostate in order to take a representative sampling of tissue to biopsy. The introduction of MRI has allowed doctors to see specific lesions in the prostate and only take tissue samples from those spots. But the two sampling methods often aren ’t used in combination.Inthe three-year study, published in JAMA Surgery, a strategy combining both sampling methods led to the detection of up to 33 percent more cancers than standard methods. According to senior author  Dr. Leonard Marks, the findings could help lead to an important change in how prostate biopsies are performed.“Our research suggests that the different biopsy methods identify different tumors,” said Marks, who holds the Jean B. deKernion Chair in the department of urology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. “To maximize our ability to identify prostate cancer, we need to take advantage of all the information we can. Our cancer detection rate, while using differen...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news