Multiparametric-Magnetic Resonance/Ultrasound Fusion Targeted Prostate Biopsy Improves Agreement Between Biopsy and Radical Prostatectomy Gleason Score.

AIM: To investigate if targeted prostate biopsy (TBx) has superior performance to standard untargeted biopsy (SBx) in determining the optimal agreement between biopsy and surgical Gleason Score (GS).

PATIENTS AND METHODS: An analysis of our institutional longitudinal database identified 683 consecutive patients who underwent either SBx (18-20 standardized transrectal ultrasound peripheral/transitional zone cores) or TBx alone (4-6 cores for each multiparametric magnetic resonance suspicious lesion, Prostate Imaging Reporting and Data System [(PI-RADS)≥3] after a previous negative first SBx. A total of 246 consecutive patients with diagnosis of prostate cancer (117 SBx and 129 TBx diagnoses) who underwent robot-assisted radical prostatectomy between January 2014 and December 2015, were enrolled. The concordance of biopsy GS to pathological GS, as well as the association between categorical variables [age, digital rectal exam (DRE), TNM, PI-RADS], were analyzed by Fisher's exact test.

RESULTS: Prostate cancer was diagnosed in 32.0% of the SBx group and in 49.3% of TBx. The rate of correctly classified, up-graded and down-graded GS was 53.8% vs. 91.5%, 39.3% vs. 7.8% and 6.8% vs. 0.8% for SBx and TBx, respectively (p<0.001). The GS concordance rates for SBx and TBx cohorts were: 14.3% vs. 41.7% for GS 6, 61.0% vs. 83.8% for GS 3+4, 56.3% vs. 75.0% for GS 4+3, 27.3% vs. 100% for GS 8 and 80% vs. 100% for GS 9, respectively.

CONCLUSION: TBx ensured a higher of accuracy of prostate cancer detection and a better performance in discriminating significant from insignificant prostate cancer, when compared to SBx. TBx significantly reduced the risk of GS up-/down-grading at radical prostatectomy for all histopathological categories. This is a notable advance in the selection of candidates for active surveillance.