Endoscopic ultrasound-guided transrectal biopsies of pelvic tumors

The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility, safety, and diagnostic accuracy of endorectal ultrasound-guided biopsies in patients with extrarectal lesions. Data from all patients with suspicious pelvic pathology who underwent endorectal ultrasound-guided biopsies were collected prospectively. To evaluate the accuracy of the diagnosis, all patients with benign histology but primary suspicion of a malignant lesion were followed up for at least 12 months. A total of 48 patients whose median age was 66 years were evaluated. Apart from one postbiopsy hemorrhage, which was managed conservatively, no other complications were encountered. Sufficient tissue was removed to allow histologic examination in all cases. A large variety of diagnoses including primary and secondary malignancies (n = 25) as well as benign pathologies (n = 23) could be established. There were no false positive but three false negative histologies in patients with proven local recurrence of a malignant tumor during the follow-up period. This results in a sensitivity of 88%, specificity of 100%, positive predictive value of 100%, and negative predictive value of 89%. It is concluded that endoscopic ultrasound-guided transrectal biopsy is a safe method with a high diagnostic accuracy in the assessment of pelvic tumors.