Advanced Prostate Scanning

Advanced 3T MRI improves prostate cancer diagnosis

It has been clear for many years that ordinary MRI for the new diagnosis of prostate cancer is neither universally accepted nor used widely by urologists because of its limitations. However, recently, tremendous experience has been gained in new MRI techniques and it is now clear that we are now able to deal with the many bottlenecks in prostate cancer management. New techniques have made the transition from academic investigation to routine clinical usage because they have been shown to provide more accurate diagnoses. At Paul Strickland Scanner Centre, by taking advantage of our high performance, high field strength 3T MRI scanner it is now possible to combine anatomical and functional images into a comprehensive evaluation in only a small additional time. We now routinely use advanced MRI for our prostate cancer patients, which we apply appropriately at various stages in the prostate cancer patient’s journey.

Such advanced imaging capability enables us to tackle earlier stages of disease with more confidence, particularly for patients with raised PSA levels and negative biopsies when the question being asked is: is there cancer present and where is it? The answers help us guide urologists to the correct place to biopsy and so reduce the number of biopsies needed to make a diagnosis.

We can also evaluate patients more successfully who are being considered for active surveillance because we are able to identify more confidently features that suggest a more aggressive cancer and so we are more confidently able to advise on the frequency of follow-up. We are also able to pick out patients who potentially have a more aggressive disease than is thought clinically and finally to guide focal therapies to intra-prostatic lesions. We feel our investment in this area will provide new and exciting opportunities for promoting the health of men in the next 5 to 10 years.