Inflammation appears as high Prostate Imaging-Reporting and Data System scores on prostate magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) leading to false positive MRI fusion biopsy.

PURPOSE

To investigate if inflammation as a potential cause of false-positive lesions from recent UroNav magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) fusion prostate biopsy patients.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

We retrospectively identified 43 men with 61 MRI lesions noted on prostate MRI before MRI ultrasound-guided fusion prostate biopsy. Men underwent MRI with 3T Siemens TIM Trio MRI system (Siemens AG, Germany), and lesions were identified and marked in DynaCAD system (Invivo Corporation, USA) with subsequent biopsy with MRI fusion with UroNav. We obtained targeted and standard 12-core needle biopsies. We retrospectively reviewed pathology reports for inflammation.

RESULTS

We noted a total of 43 (70.5%) false-positive lesions with 28 having no cancer on any cores, and 15 lesions with cancer noted on systematic biopsy but not in the target region. Of the men with cancer, 6 of the false positive lesions had inflammation in the location of the targeted region of interest (40.0%, 6/15). However, when we examine the 21/28 lesions with an identified lesion on MRI with no cancer in all cores, 54.5% had inflammation on prostate biopsy pathology (12/22, p=0.024). We noted the highest proportion of inflammation.

CONCLUSIONS

Inflammation can confound the interpretation of MRI by mimicking prostate cancer. We suggested focused efforts to differentiate inflammation and cancer on prostate MRI.