Dr. Max Gomez: MRIs Could Make Prostate Biopsies More Effective

NEW YORK(CBSNewYork) -- Every year about a million men undergo a prostate biopsy. but almost three-quarters of those are negative.

As CBS2's Dr. Max Gomez explained, using an MRI to guide biopsies may be a better way to go.

Ronald Briscoe has been talking to doctors about his prostate cancer.

"My older brother, my father had it, and also my baby brother has it," he said.

Doctors found his high-risk prostate cancer by using MRI guided technology. The approach differs from a standard prostate biopsy that uses ultrasound.

"Ultrasound insures that the needles hit the prostate, but we don't use the ultrasound to direct the needles into where the tumor may be present," Peter A. Pinto, M.D., National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, explained.

"We randomly try to get all the prostate sampled in hopes of catching the cancer," M. Minhaj Siddiqui, M.D., National Cancer Institute, National Institute of Health, added.

National Cancer Institute researchers looked at more than a thousand men with elevated PSA levels. The men underwent an MRI guided, targeted biopsy and the traditional standard biopsy using ultrasound alone. The results of both biopsies were then compared.

"The targeted MR guided biopsy had a 30 percent increase in detection of high-risk prostate cancer as compared to the traditional biopsies performed today," Pinto said.

The study in JAMA, Jorunal of the American Medical Association found yet another benefit.

"Low risk cancers that are felt to be over diagnosed and voer treated were actually detected 17 percent less in a targeted biopsy," he added.

"If you catch it early and get it done, taken care of, you get to live a longer life," Briscoe said.

While MRI guided biopsies are somewhat more cumbersome and expensive, the fact that they find aggressive tumors means the technique may avoid the harm and expense of detecting insignificant cancers that are unlikely to cause problems for the patient.