Are extended biopsies really necessary to improve prostate cancer detection?

The aim of this study is to understand the value of specific sites in extended peripheral and transition zone biopsy schemes in order to define the optimal systematic biopsy regimen correlated with the percentage of positivity of each single bioptic site. A total of 165 consecutive patients underwent transrectal ultrasonography examination to detect prostate cancer followed by a lesion-directed and systematic 14-step biopsy scheme. The detection rate was examined for the lesion-directed and for each zone region biopsy. The frequency of positive biopsies in the various prostate regions was determined to evaluate the diagnostic yield of each biopsy site. Analysis was stratified for prostate-specific antigen (PSA), free-to-total PSA ratio, age, prostate size and digital rectal examination. The biopsy protocol detected 40% of patients (66/165) as positive and 55.1% (91/165) as negative for cancer. Standard sextant biopsy was expected to detect only 51 cancer on 66, lateral peripheral (PZ), transition (TZ) and central zone (CZ) biopsies only 56 cancer on 66, while the combination of sextant, PZ, TZ and CZ biopsies, for a total of 14 zone biopsies, detected 64 on 66 patients with cancer (97%) at recruitment. Sampling only the eight prostate regions with higher frequency of positive cancer biopsy was expected to detect 61 cancer patients against the 64 found with the 14-step scheme. This eight-biopsy regimen outperforms the conventional sextant regimen in cancer detection rate (93 vs 77%) and has an overall detection rate lower by only 3.1% (36.9 vs 40%) compared to the 14-biopsy regimen. This difference in detection rate is even smaller in patients with PSA values <10 ng/ml, age <70 y and prostate size <50 ml. This eight-biopsy scheme, including sampling in PZ and TZ toward the base, should be considered in an initial biopsy scheme to maintain a similar detection rate of an extensive biopsy scheme reducing the number of biopsies.