Evaluation of Prostate HistoScanning as a Method for Targeted Biopsy in Routine Practice

Background Prostate HistoScanning (PHS) is a tissue characterization system used to enhance prostate cancer (PCa) detection via transrectal ultrasound imaging. Objective To assess the impact of supplementing systematic transrectal biopsy with up to three PHS true targeting (TT) guided biopsies on the PCa detection rate and preclinical patient assessment. Design, setting, and participants This was a prospective study involving a cohort of 611 consecutive patients referred for transrectal prostate biopsy following suspicion of PCa. PHS-TT guided cores were obtained from up to three PHS lesions of ≥0.5 cm3 per prostate and only one core per single PHS lesion. Histological outcomes from a systematic extended 12-core biopsy (Bx) scheme and additional PHS-TT guided cores were compared. Outcome measurements and statistical analysis Comparison of PHS results and histopathology was performed per sextant. The χ2 and Mann-Whitney test were used to assess differences. Statistical significance was set at p < 0.05. Results and limitations PHS showed lesions of ≥0.5 cm3 in 312 out of the 611 patients recruited. In this group, Bx detected PCa in 59% (185/312) and PHS-TT in 87% (270/312; p< 0.001). The detection rate was 25% (944/3744 cores) for Bx and 68% (387/573 cores) for PHS-TT (p< 0.001). Preclinical assessment was significantly better when using PHS-TT: Bx found 18.6% (58/312) and 8.3% (26/312), while PHS-TT found 42.3% (132/312) and 20.8% (65/312) of Gleason 7 and 8 cases, respectively (p < 0.001). PHS-TT attributed Gleason score 6 to fewer patients (23.4%, 73/312) than Bx did (32.4%, 101/312; p = 0.0021). Conclusions Patients with a suspicion of PCa may benefit from addition of a few PHS-TT cores to the standard Bx workflow. Patient summary Targeted biopsies of the prostate are proving to be equivalent to or better than standard systematic random sampling in many studies. Our study results support supplementing the standard schematic transrectal ultrasound-guided biopsy with a few guided cores harvested using the ultrasound-based prostate HistoScanning true targeting approach in cases for which multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging is not available.