Comparison of sonoelastography guided biopsy with systematic biopsy: impact on prostate cancer detection

A prospective study was performed to determine the value of sonoelastography (SE) targeted biopsy for prostate cancer (PCa) detection. A series of 230 male screening volunteers was examined. Two independent examiners evaluated each subject. One single investigator performed < or =5 SE targeted biopsies into suspicious regions in the peripheral zone only. The stiffness of the lesion was displayed by SE and color-coded from red (soft) to blue (hard). Hard lesions were considered as malignant and targeted by biopsy. Subsequently, another examiner performed ten systematic biopsies. Cancer detection rates of the two techniques were compared. Cancer was detected in 81 of the 230 patients (35%), including 68 (30%) by SE targeted biopsy and in 58 (25%) by systematic biopsy. Cancer was detected by targeted biopsy alone in 23 patients (10%) and by systematic biopsy alone in 13 patients (6%). The detection rate for SE targeted biopsy cores (12.7% or 135 of 1,109 cores) was significantly better than for systematic biopsy cores (5.6% or 130 of 2,300 cores, P < 0.001). SE targeted biopsy in a patient with cancer was 2.9-fold more likely to detect PCa than systematic biopsy. SE targeted biopsy detected more cases of PCa than systematic biopsy, with fewer than half the number of biopsy cores in this prostate-specific antigen screening population.