Prebiopsy PSA velocity not reliable predictor of prostate cancer diagnosis, Gleason score, tumor location, or cancer volume after TTMB.

Objectives: To evaluate the effect of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) velocity (PSAV) on prostate cancer diagnosis, Gleason score, tumor location, and cancer volume in men undergoing transperineal template-guided mapping biopsy (TTMB). PSAV has been associated with greater Gleason scores and greater prostate cancer-specific mortality.

Methods: From January 2005 through September 2007, 217 patients underwent TTMB. The inclusion criteria included a persistently elevated PSA level and/or diagnosis of atypical small acinar proliferation or high-grade prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia on previous biopsy. The prostate gland was arbitrarily divided into 24 regions, and a median of 58 cores were obtained per patient. The patients were divided into 3 velocity cohorts according to the following changes in PSA level in the year before biopsy: < or =0.0, 0.1-1.9, and > or =2.0 ng/mL. The PSAV was evaluated as a predictor for prostate cancer diagnosis, Gleason score, tumor volume, and cancer location.

Results: The mean patient age was 64.2 years, with a mean prebiopsy PSA level of 8.5 ng/mL. Prostate cancer was diagnosed in 97 patients (44.7%). The study population had undergone an average of 1.8 +/- 1.0 biopsies before TTMB. PSAV did not predict for prostate cancer diagnosis (P = .84), Gleason score (P = .78), the percentage of positive cores (P = .37), or tumor location.

Conclusions: Among patients with persistently elevated PSA levels despite previously negative biopsy findings, PSAV did not reliably predict for a diagnosis of prostate cancer nor did it correlate with prostate cancer grade, volume, or location using TTMB.