Active Surveillance with mpMRI
Multi-parametric magnetic resonance imaging (mpMRI) is used in prostate cancer screening to detect and pinpoint the location of tumors or lesions within the prostate. mpMRI images help predict disease progression, which aids significantly in helping you and your doctor determine the best course of action for treatment. In some cases, mpMRI can rule out prostate cancer, avoiding the need for a prostate biopsy. It is estimated that mpMRI can increase the detection of clinically significant disease over other methods by 50% and reduce the number of unnecessary biopsies by one-third.
For men with slower-growing cancers, mpMRI allows for more confident active surveillance or watchful waiting.
Active Surveillance (AS)
is appropriate for younger men with low risk cancer who wish to postpone or avoid definitive treatment, or older men for whom the cancer may never cause a problem. Typically, patients will have a DRE and PSA every 3 – 6 months and a biopsy once a year.
Watchful Waiting (WW)
is for men who have low risk cancer and a life expectancy of less than 10 years or have a history of serious health problems that may make some treatments too risky. Typically, patients will have a DRE and PSA test every 6 – 12 months. Hormone therapy may be used if the cancer begins to spread and the patient becomes symptomatic.
WATCH: The inventor of the PSA test, Dr. Richard J. Ablin and his long-time friend, HALO Dx Chief Research Officer, Bernadette M. Greenwood, RT(R)(MR)(ARRT), PhD(c), explain the evolution of the PSA test over the past several decades and the key role it still plays prostate cancer and BPH (benign prostatic hypertrophy) screening today.
