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A 12-year follow-up of ANNA/C-TRUS image-targeted biopsies in patients suspicious for prostate cancer

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Abstract

Purpose

PSA screening has been rehabilitated. PSA is not specific and can be elevated by benign reasons. Additionally, a subgroup of patients with prostate hyperplasia may harbor prostate cancer (PCa). During monitoring, the clinician aims to detect significant tumors in time, submitting patients to minimal psychological and physical burden, especially in men with high serum PSA and repeat biopsies. We aimed to determine long-term outcomes with respect to ANNA/C-TRUS ability to detect PCa with six targeted biopsies.

Methods

A subset of 71 patients were enrolled. During monitoring, they were subjected to primary, secondary, or even multiple prostate biopsies when needed. Protocol monitoring included PSA measurements, digital rectal examination (DRE) and imaging.

Results

The median follow-up was 12 years. Forty-one patients had a history of negative systematic random biopsies (1–3 sessions). Their age ranges 62–85 years, PSA 0.5–47.3 ng/ml, and the median prostate volume 11–255 cc. During monitoring, 15 patients were diagnosed with PCa. Only two harbored aggressive tumors. The median time to diagnosis was 6 years. All PCa patients are free from biochemical relapse. From the remaining 56 patients, 11 did not have any biopsies, 12 had one, 13 had two, and 20 had three or more biopsy sessions.

Conclusions

ANNA/C-TRUS is a useful method monitoring patients with a risk of PCa. 50–75% of the usually performed biopsy cores could be spared and, after 12 years, 97% of the patients were either without evidence of a PCa or were diagnosed with a good prognosis tumor.

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Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

TT data management, data analysis, and manuscript writing. BG data collection. UP manuscript editing. LB manuscript editing. TL protocol/project development, data collection and management.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Theodoros Tokas.

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Conflict of interest

Tillmann Loch is inventor of the ANNA/C-TRUS method and shareholder of ANNA Technologies/Deutschland; have received consultation fees from ANNA Technologies and have received teaching equipment from BK Medical. All other authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Tokas, T., Grabski, B., Paul, U. et al. A 12-year follow-up of ANNA/C-TRUS image-targeted biopsies in patients suspicious for prostate cancer. World J Urol 36, 699–704 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00345-017-2160-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00345-017-2160-z

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