is prostate cancer biopsy effective

by: Donald Saunders

Although there are several tests which may be performed when the

presence of prostate cancer is suspected, the only sure way to detect

the condition is the prostate biopsy. But precisely how effective is

the biopsy at confirming this particular condition?

In the United States alone each year there are in the region of one

million prostate biopsies carried out of which about 25 percent show

the presence of cancer. Of the remaining 75 percent of biopsies

however roughly 33 percent also result in false negative results. This

means that about 25 percent of all those men being given a prostate

biopsy are cleared by this test, despite the fact that they have

prostate cancer.

At first sight therefore it might appear that the biopsy is not a very

good test but these results do not demonstrate that there is anything

wrong with the prostate biopsy procedure as a means of identifying the

presence of cancer. What it does clearly mean however is that there is

a need to spot those individuals who, in spite of returning a negative

result, are nonetheless at high risk from cancer and should therefore

have a second follow-up biopsy.

The difficulty is that until very recently there has been no easy

method of identifying those patients at risk. Fortunately, a recent

study of over 500 individuals being investigated for prostate cancer

could now provide a solution.

All of the men taking part in the study had previously had a negative

biopsy result but the researchers found that when they looked at the

patient's prostate specific antigen test results and these were

adjusted to take account of the size of the prostate they were able to

identify those individuals who were more likely to receive a positive

result on a follow-up biopsy.

The researchers also found that patients with a Gleeson score of 7 or

higher were at greater risk from life-threatening cancer and were

again more likely to receive a positive result on a second biopsy. The

Gleeson score runs on a scale from 2 to 10 and the score is calculated

from a microscopic investigation of the biopsy tissue. Low scores

point to a cancer with a relatively low risk of spread and high scores

point to a cancer which is much more likely to spread.

There are several biopsy procedures used nowadays but perhaps the most

frequently performed procedure is known as the core needle biopsy. In

this case a number of tiny samples of tissue are removed from

different areas of the prostrate using a biopsy gun which shoots a

needle into the chosen section to remove the sample in just a fraction

of a second. The samples collected are then sent off for microscopic

examination to find out whether cancer is present and, if it is, to

determine precisely how much of the prostate is affected.

A prostate biopsy is not a cheap procedure and is a test which can

also be relatively worrying for the patient. It is sometimes also a

quite painful test which may involve bleeding and a risk of infection.

Consequently it is important to identify those individuals for whom a

follow-up biopsy would be desirable and to reduce the number of

avoidable follow-up biopsies being performed every year.

ProstateProblemCenter.com provides information on everything from the

prostate biopsy to the therapeutic use of milking the prostate gland

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