Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 20, 2026
A Cognitive Fusion-guided Prostate Biopsy Using Multiparametric Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Transrectal Ultrasound
Published on: March 21, 2025
There Is No Way to Avoid Systematic Prostate Biopsies in Addition to Multiparametric Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Paolo Dell'Oglio1, Armando Stabile1, Matteo Soligo2
1Department of Urology and Division of Experimental Oncology, URI, Urological Research Institute, IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy.
Background:
Whether or not adding systematic biopsies (transrectal ultrasound-guided biopsy [TRUS-Bx]) to targeted cores in patients with a lesion detected at multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (mpMRI) is still a debated topic.
Objective:
To identify patients who can avoid TRUS-Bx at the time of mpMRI targeted biopsy (MRI-TBx) relying on individual patient probability to harbour clinically significant prostate cancer (csPCa) outside the index lesion (IL).
Design, Setting, And Participants:
A total of 339 European and 441 North American patients underwent fusion MRI-TBx and concomitant TRUS-Bx at two tertiary care referral centres between 2013 and 2017.
Outcome Measurements And Statistical Analysis:
The study outcome was csPCa, defined as a Gleason score at biopsy of ≥7, outside the IL. Multivariable logistic regression analyses (MVAs) were performed to develop a predictive model for the study outcome. Multivariable-derived coefficients were used to develop a novel risk calculator in each cohort. The models were evaluated using the area under the curve (AUC), calibration plot, and decision-curve analyses.
Results And Limitations:
In the European cohort, csPCa detection rate was 55%. The csPCa detection rate for TRUS-Bx was 41%. At MVAs, prostate volume, previous negative biopsy, and Prostate Imaging Reporting and Data System versions 4 and 5 were independent predictors for the presence of csPCa outside the IL. The multivariable model had an AUC of 0.78. Omitting TRUS-Bx in patients with a calculated risk of <15% would have spared 16% of TRUS-Bx at the cost of missing 7% of csPCa. Similar findings were obtained when the same analyses were performed in the North American cohort. No net benefit was observed for low-threshold probabilities (<15%) of the each model relative to the standard of care (performing TRUS-Bx in addition to MRI-TBx to all patients) in both cohorts. The study is limited by its retrospective design.
Conclusions:
We failed to identify those patients who might safely benefit from MRI-TBx alone. The combination of MRI-TBx and TRUS-Bx should strongly be considered the best available approach.
Patient Summary:
In the presence of positive multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (mpMRI) of the prostate, physicians should always perform systematic sampling of the prostate in addition to mpMRI targeted biopsy.
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