Uncategorized

As you are aware, Rolling Oaks Radiology is one of the most active and experienced prostate MRI centers in the country. This letter is to inform you about recent PIRADS assessment changes for the interpretation of prostate MRI exams.

PIRADS, initially developed in Europe, has been the international accepted interpretation standard for the past two years. These recent changes were announced by our joint steering committee at the annual meeting of the RSNA in November.

While most prostate cancers grow slowly and may require only minimal treatment, others are aggressive and early detection of these cancers is essential to achieving optimal outcomes. Accurately diagnosing prostate cancer early can be an immense challenge. Digital rectal exam (DRE), prostate-specific antigen (PSA) tests and transrectal ultrasound-guided (TRUS) biopsy — tools traditionally used to diagnose prostate cancer — have limitations that the medical community has long sought to overcome.

There has been a lively debate in the medical community on the role of the PSA test in the diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer. This debate must not lead more men to ignore the warning signs of prostate cancer – more men were diagnosed with prostate cancer than Americans were diagnosed with breast cancer last year.

A growing body of evidence proves MRI can effectively identify suspicious lesions prior to biopsy. MRI generally does not detect indolent tumors that do not require treatment and can guide biopsy needles for more precise targeting. This reduces the necessity for repeat biopsies while increasing detection rates for high-risk, high-grade prostate cancers. However, the practice of using MRI to detect prostate cancer before performing biopsy is not widespread.

Ongoing research has consistently shown that multiparametric prostate MRI can aid prostate cancer screening and improve detection rates. New results to a large-scale study investigating the effectiveness of MRI-TRUS fusion biopsy versus traditional TRUS biopsy demonstrate the superiority of multiparametric prostate MRI in prostate cancer detection.