Prostate scan cut may help more – research

CUTTING the length of MRI scans for prostate cancer by a third would make them cheaper and more accessible without hindering accuracy, a trial has found.

It comes after a separate study involving almost 400,000 men found blood tests used to screen for the disease have little impact on reducing deaths.

Clinicians offer patients suspected of having prostate cancer an MRI scan, which is carried out in three stages.

The final step involves the patient being injected with contrast dye, which helps to enhance the images from the scan.

Removing this stage would lower costs and ensure MRIs are offered to more men, researchers from University College London (UCL) and University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said.

However, they warned it is “vital” that the scans “are of optimal diagnostic quality” if this approach is to be taken.

The Prime trial included 555 patients from 22 hospitals across 12 countries who all had a three-stage scan.

For each patient, radiologists assessed a two-step scan without the dye and the three-step scan separately.

Specialists diagnosed 29% of patients with prostate cancer using the shorter scan – the same figure as when the threestep scan images were used.

Dr Clare Allen, a lead radiologist on the trial, said the results – which have been presented at the European Association of Urology (EAU) conference in Paris – show significant prostate cancer is unlikely to be missed in the absence of a contrast scan.

“The scans will be quicker, cheaper and can be offered to more men,” she added.

“It is critical to emphasise that dropping the third part of the MRI scan is dependent on the first two parts of the scan being of high quality. MRI scanners in this study were optimised before they were used, so we would advise centres wishing to change to the two-part scan to ensure MRI scanners and image quality are optimised first.”

According to Cancer Research UK, there are about 52,300 new prostate cancer cases every year in the UK.

The trial found a two-stage MRI could also slash average costs by almost 50%.

The trial was funded by Prostate Cancer UK and the John Black Charitable Foundation.