Results of PROMIS Prostate Cancer Trial Announced

The results of the long-awaited Prostate MRI Imaging Study (PROMIS) trial have been released and are expected to lead to dramatic changes in the way suspected prostate cancer is investigated.

The goal of the trial was to find out whether performing a Multi-Parametric MRI (MP-MRI) scan of the prostate gland before prostate biopsy could safely exclude significant prostate cancer, and prevent the need for an unnecessary biopsy procedure. The researchers recruited 561 men from 11 hospitals. The men underwent MP-MRI scans, template prostate mapping biopsies, and TRUS biopsies. The results of the PROMIS trial were welcomed by the UK Royal College of Radiologists.

The results of the study showed that MP-MRI is nearly twice as sensitive as Transrectal Ultrasound (TRUS) guided biopsies at detecting cancer. MP-MRI had a negative predictive value of 89%, and could form part of a triage helping clinicians decide which patients need a TRUS biopsy reducing the number of biopsies by 25%. MP-MRI would also nearly double the number of correct diagnoses of significant cancers, and reduce false positive diagnoses by around 33%. The inclusion of diagnosis using MP-MRI before biopsy would require more specialized radiologists, and more scanners, but would improve prostate cancer diagnosis significantly, and prevent unnecessary biopsies.