Different diagnostic strategies combining prostate health index and magnetic resonance imaging for predicting...

To explore how prostate health index (PHI) and multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (mpMRI) should be used in concert to improve diagnostic capacity for clinically significant prostate cancers (CsCaP) in patients with prostate-specific antigen (PSA) between 4 and 20 ng/ml.

About 426 patients fulfilling the inclusion criteria were included in this study. Univariable and multivariable logistic analyses were performed to analyze the association between the clinical indicators and CaP/CsCaP. We used the Delong test to compare the differences in the area under the curve (AUC) values of four models for CaP and CsCaP. Decision curve analysis (DCA) and calibration plots were used to assess predictive performance. We compared clinical outcomes of different diagnostic strategies constructed using different combinations of the models by the chi-square test and the McNemar test.

The AUC of PHI-MRI (a risk prediction model based on PHI and mpMRI) was 0.859, which was significantly higher than those of PHI (AUC = 0.792, P < 0.001) and mpMRI (AUC = 0.797, P < 0.001). PHI-MRI had a higher net benefit on DCA for predicting CaP and CsCaP in comparison to PHI and mpMRI. Adding the PHI-MRI in diagnostic strategies for CsCaP, such as use PHI-MRI alone or sequential use of PHI followed by PHI-MRI, could reduce the number of biopsies by approximately 20% compared to use PHI followed by mpMRI (256 vs 316, 257 vs 316, respectively).

The PHI-MRI model was superior to PHI and MRI alone. It may reduce the number of biopsies and ensure the detection rate of CsCaP under an appropriate sensitivity at the cost of an increased number of MRI scans.