BERKELEY, CA (UroToday.com) - While prostate cancer (PCa) is the most common cancer in men, systematic transrectal ultrasound (TRUS)-guided prostate biopsy (PBx) has heralded a new era in its diagnosis.
Although TRUS guided PBx was introduced in 1989, there have been ongoing debates regarding its fashion, accuracy and reliability. In addition, there is no universally accepted repeat biopsy schema for patients with prior negative prostate biopsies and continuing high PSA levels and/or suspicious digital rectal examination findings. Although some authors and recent guidelines recommend sampling the transitional zone in such cases, its effectiveness has not yet been validated.
In this study we evaluated the importance of transitional zone sampling in repeat biopsies by showing the incidence of PCa detection in the transurethral resection of prostate (TURP) speciment of patients with at least one prior negative PBx. PCa was detected in the transitional zone of <5% of those patients, and sampling the transitional zone during previous PBx does not make any difference in detecting PCa that is later diagnosed upon TURP, where the entire transitional zone is resected and analyzed.
Our results revealed that strategies for increasing the number of cores taken from the transitional zone of the prostate during repeat biopsies and potential diagnostic value of TURP should be reconsidered.
Written by:
Ege Can Serefoglu, MD, et al. as part of Beyond the Abstract on UroToday.com. This initiative offers a method of publishing for the professional urology community. Authors are given an opportunity to expand on the circumstances, limitations etc... of their research by referencing the published abstract.
Is sampling transitional zone in patients who had prior negative prostate biopsy necessary? - Abstract
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