Technologies for localization and diagnosis of prostate cancer

Abstract

The gold standard for detecting prostate cancer (PCa), systematic biopsy, lacks sensitivity as well as grading accuracy. PSA screening leads to over-treatment of many men, and it is unclear whether screening reduces PCa mortality. This review provides an understanding of the difficulties of localizing and diagnosing PCa. It summarizes recent developments of ultrasound (including elastography) and MRI, and discusses some alternative experimental techniques, such as resonance sensor technology and vibrational spectroscopy. A comparison between the different methods is presented. It is concluded that new ultrasound techniques are promising for targeted biopsy procedures, in order to detect more clinically significant cancers while reducing the number of cores. MRI advances are very promising, but MRI remains expensive and MR-guided biopsy is complex. Resonance sensor technology and vibrational spectroscopy have shown promising results in vitro. There is a need for large prospective multicentre trials that unambiguously prove the clinical benefits of these new techniques.

Keywords:

• Prostate cancer
• Imaging
• Diagnosing
• Grading
• Targeted biopsy

Acknowledgements

The study was funded by the Objective 2 Norra Norrland—EU Structural Fund.

*In human tissue it is predominantly the hydrogen nucleus, abundant in water and lipids, that yields a signal [97].