Can a prostate biopsy be safely deferred on PI-RADS 1,2 or 3 lesions seen on pre-biopsy mp-MRI?

Multi-parametric magnetic resonance imaging (mp-MRI) is currently used to triage patients with suspected prostate cancer, before deciding on prostate biopsies. In our study, we evaluated normal and equivocal pre-biopsy mp-MRIs to see whether it is safe to avoid biopsy with such findings.

A retrospective study was conducted at a district general hospital in the UK between August 2017 and July 2018. Patients with negative and equivocal prebiopsy mp-MRI with high clinical suspicion of cancer had proceeded to biopsy. MRI reports with prostate imaging reporting and data system (PI-RADS) scores 1, 2, 3 and normal MRI were evaluated against the transrectal ultrasound-guided prostate biopsy (TRUS-PB) outcomes to demonstrate benign pathology, clinically insignificant or clinically significant cancer (csCa). CsCa was defined as Gleason score (GS) ≥3 + 4.

Out of 265 mp-MRIs studied, five (1.9%) were PI-RADS 1, 109 (41.1%) and 84 (31.7%) were PI-RADS 2 and 3 lesions respectively; 67 (25.3%) were reported as normal. Seventy-five (27.3%) patients did not have biopsies following their MRI and 73.3% (51/75) of them had benign feeling prostate. Negative MRIs (PI-RADS 1, 2 and normal MRI) showed 8.8% and PI-RADS 3 lesions demonstrated 11.9% csCa. Negative predictive value for normal MRI was 91.2%. Mean PSA density (PSAD) among the benign, GS 3 + 3 and csCa was 0.14, 0.16 and 0.27 ng/ml/ml respectively and this was statistically significant (p < 0.001). The average percentage of cancer found in GS 3 + 3 and csCa was 3.2% and 20.1%, respectively.

Avoiding TRUS-PB following normal or equivocal mp-MRI should carefully be decided as 18.5% of cancer was demonstrated in this group and 9.8% of those who were diagnosed with cancer were csCa. PSAD and DRE findings provide additional information to help with this decision.