Multiparametric MRI-ultrasound fusion prostate biopsy in patients without prior diagnosis of prostate cancer: beyond centers of excellence.

Purpose: Multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (mpMRI)-ultrasound (US) fusion prostate biopsy (FBx) has demonstrated increased accuracy for prostate cancer detection at designated centers of excellence. There is a concern if their results can be reproduced in smaller centers. Here, we evaluate the outcomes of FBx from a smaller academic center.

Methods: A retrospective review of patients without a prior diagnosis of prostate cancer undergoing FBx from January 2014 to November 2019 was performed. Histopathological results were grouped into low-risk disease (Grade Group 1), intermediate-risk disease (Grade Group 2 and 3), and high-risk disease (Grade Group 4 or 5). Clinically significant (CS) prostate cancer was defined as Grade Group ≥ 2.

Results: Five hundred and six men were included. Median age (IQR) and PSA (IQR) were 65.2 (60.3-70.2) years and 6.9 (5.2-9.7) ng/ml, respectively. There was no difference in overall cancer detection between FBx and SBx (53.6% vs 56.4%  = .1507). CS cancer detection was significantly higher with FBx (39.6% vs 35.3,  = .0275). FBx also outperformed SBx in diagnosing CS disease in patients with prior history of negative prostate biopsy (36.9% vs 27.9%,  < .001).

Conclusion: FBx detects a higher proportion of clinically significant disease and a lower proportion of clinically insignificant disease compared to SBx, in line with outcomes demonstrated by centers of excellence.