Optimizing Prostate Biopsy Schemes in Men With Multiple MRI Visible Lesions

Prostate biopsies have been the cornerstone of prostate cancer (PCa) diagnosis, risk stratification, and treatment planning. The optimal biopsy scheme should achieve the highest csPCa detection rates with the most accurate core sites and the least biopsy-cores. The combined targeted and systematic biopsy (CTSBx) could effectively detect clinically significant PCa (csPCa) and was the standard scheme for patients with visible suspicious lesions on MRI in the past. However, some limitations existed in the CTSBx scheme, including the detection of clinically insignificant PCa (ciPCa), the risk of post-biopsy complications, and adverse pathological changes such as upgrade, upstage, capsule invasion, and positive surgical margin after the radical prostatectomy (RP). Therefore, more and more radiologists and urologists focused on the issue of optimization of prostate biopsy schemes. Recent studies demonstrated that the majority of csPCa were found within a band of 10-mm radius outside MRI lesions (the penumbra). Focusing biopsy cores within and around the region of interest (ROI), known as targeted and perilesional biopsy (TPLBx) scheme, is recommended by the latest EAU guideline for the diagnosis of patients with visible suspicious lesions on MRI.

Prostate cancer generally occurs multifocally. The incidence of multiple lesions among different cohorts in previous studies ranges between 20% and 50%. Though the CTSBx schemes are usually utilized for these patients, some previous studies suggested that additional systematic biopsy is of limited informative value in terms of overall csPCa detection. Therefore, the optimal prostate biopsy scheme for patients with multiple visible MRI suspicious lesions is still a matter of debate. Compared with the CTSBx scheme, the TPLBx changed the distribution of the biopsy-core according to the location of visible suspicious lesions. Many studies have preliminarily verified that the diagnostic efficacy of TPLBx was not inferior to that of CTSBx with the benefits of decreasing the detection of ciPCa and reducing biopsy cores. TPLBx scheme focuses biopsy cores within and around the ROI, which may evaluate the pathological characteristics of MRI visible suspicious lesions more accurately, benefiting for the treatment planning and reducing the occurrence rates of adverse pathological changes after the radical prostatectomy (RP). However, current data for TPLBx schemes are mostly retrospective, and few studies focused on the application of TPLBx for patients with multiple MRI visible lesions. Thus, this randomized controlled trial (RCT) aims to evaluate the efficacy of TPLBx and CTSBx schemes for patients with multiple MRI visible lesions, provide high-quality evidence for the optimization of prostate biopsy schemes.

The main questions it aims to answer are:

Does TPLBx promote the accurate diagnosis of clinically significant prostate cancer (csPCa) among men with multiple MRI visible lesions? What's the value of TPLBx in improving the evaluation of prostate cancer when developing the treatment plan for patients with multiple MRI visible lesions? What's the value of TPLBx in avoiding the adverse pathological outcomes after the radical prostatectomy such as upgrade, upstage, and capsule invasion among patients with multiple MRI visible lesions? Researchers will compare the cancer detection rates of TPLBx and CTSBx to explore the efficacy of different prostate biopsy schemes.

Participants will:

Receive TPLBx or CTSBx.

Inclusion criteria

• the age of the patient is between 18 and 85;
• no previous biopsy;
• presence of multiple MRI visible lesions;
• every MRI visible lesion is in accordance with the EAU guidelines for performing perilesional biopsy (PB) (PI-RADS ≥4 or PI-RADS =3, clinical suspicion of PCa);
• a verified prostate-specific antigen (PSA) less than 50 ng/ml;
• complete MRI data, and high MRI quality (Prostate Imaging Quality [PI-QUAL] V1.0 score ≥3);
• the time interval between prostate biopsy and prostate MRI examination should not exceed one month;
• patients with complete prostate biopsy pathological results;
• patients with complete clinical information.

Exclusion criteria

• contraindication for MRI examination (i.e., in acute attack period such as high fever, coma, epilepsy, prone to cardiac arrest, claustrophobia, presence of ferrous metallic implants, or claustrophobia);
• contraindication for prostate biopsy ((a) in the period of acute infection or fever; (b) hypertensive crisis; (c) in the decompensated stage of heart failure; (d) diseases with severe bleeding tendency; (e) poorly controlled complications of hypertension or diabetes; (f) patients with severe internal or external hemorrhoids, perianal or rectal lesions should not undergo transrectal biopsy);
• a history of radiotherapy, chemotherapy, androgen deprivation therapy, or surgery for PCa;
• patients with previous biopsy;
• the absence of MRI-visible prostate lesions or presence of single suspicious lesions;
• PI-RADS V2.1 <3;
• unqualified or incomplete MRI data;
• the patient could not cooperate to complete the prostate biopsy;
• the patients or their family members refused to participate in this study;
• patients with incomplete clinical information.