Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 3, 2026
A New Technique for Treating Low-risk Prostate Cancer—Super Active Surveillance
Published on: November 7, 2025
Repeat prostate biopsies predict location of index cancer in an active surveillance cohort
Kenneth S Tseng1, Patricia Landis, Fadi Brimo
1Department of Urology and Pathology, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, The James Buchanan Brady Urological Institute, The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Objective:
• To evaluate the ability of repeat prostate biopsies to determine the location of the index cancer for men on prostate cancer surveillance.
Patients And Methods:
• Forty-five men on active surveillance had a record of the locations of their positive diagnostic biopsy, repeat surveillance biopsy and index cancer (i.e. largest cancer) from prostatectomy specimens. • Logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the association between two consecutive needle biopsies showing cancer in an identical location and the outcome of finding the index cancer at the same location as the initial diagnostic biopsy.
Results:
• Eighteen of 45 (40%) men ultimately had an index cancer at the same location as their diagnostic biopsy. • Thirteen men had two consecutive biopsies that showed cancer at the same location each time; nine of these men ultimately had an index cancer at that same location. • In multivariable logistic regression analysis of men with at least two biopsies, having two initial consecutive biopsies with the same location increased the odds (odds ratio 5.9; 95% CI 1.1-31, P= 0.037) of having an index cancer at the same location as the initial biopsy in a cohort of men on active surveillance.
Conclusions:
• A substantial proportion of men in an active surveillance cohort who undergo prostatectomy ultimately have evidence of an index cancer at the same location as their initial biopsy. • This is more likely to be the case when a repeat biopsy shows evidence of cancer at the same location.
