The Clinical Value of Performing an MRI before Prostate Biopsy

PURPOSE: Prostate cancer foci have a characteristic feature in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). We aimed to assess the clinical value of MRI before prostate biopsy in prostate cancer detection. MATERIALS AND METHODS: From March 2009 to June 2010, 154 patients were enrolled in this study. A total of 51 patients with a clinical suspicion of prostate cancer underwent prostate MRI by a 3T scanner before transrectal ultrasound (TRUS)-guided biopsies. A total of 103 patients with a clinical suspicion of prostate cancer underwent prostate MRI after biopsies. The sensitivity, specificity, and positive predictive value (PPV) were evaluated. In addition, tumor location of pathologic findings and ADC mapping on MRI were matched and compared. RESULTS: The sensitivity of MRI before and after biopsy was 84.8% and 92.4%, respectively. The PPV of MRI before and after biopsy was 75.7% and 92.4%, respectively. The MRI location match percentage before and after biopsy was 89.3% and 94.1%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Compared with other previous reports, our results show that the prostate cancer detection sensitivity of MRI is on the rise. Furthermore, MRI before prostate biopsy can provide more information by which to identify prostate cancer during prostate biopsy and thus reduce the false-negative rate.