Accuracy of HistoScanning™ for the prediction of a negative surgical margin in patients undergoing radical prostatectomy.

Objective: To assess the accuracy of HistoScanning™ (HS) as a visualization tool for preoperative treatment planning for nerve-sparing (NS) radical prostatectomy (RP).

Patients And Methods: A retrospective study was carried out on 80 patients with prostate cancer undergoing RP from October 2009 to December 2009. All patients underwent a HS procedure 1 day before surgery. Frozen sections (FSs) were performed on each latero-posterior side of the prostate to assess for the presence of cancer. On the HS analysis, the region corresponding to that removed at FS was assessed for suspicious lesions. The size of suspicious lesions within this volume was compared with the FS histopathological analysis.

Results: HS results corresponded to a 93% probability of having a negative surgical margin in the FSs. The presence of a HS volume ≥0.2 mL in a specific side was associated with a 3.7 times increased risk of a positive surgical margin at FS.

Conclusions: HS has the potential to assist in the planning of NSRP. Larger, multicentre studies need to be performed for validation of these encouraging results.