A study looking at taking tissue samples from the prostate (CamPROBE)

The research team found that taking prostate biopsies using the CamPROBE device was safe and didn’t cause too much pain or discomfort. 

Study design
This study was for men who needed to have a prostate biopsy. Some men who took part had already had a TRUS biopsy, but needed to have another sample taken. And some had not had a biopsy before.

First, the doctors injected a local anaesthetic in the perineum and inserted an ultrasound probe into the back passage (anus). They then put the CamPROBE needle through the skin and used the ultrasound to guide the needle into the prostate.  
 

figure-1-camprobe-cruk.png

figure-2-camprobe-cruk.png

After the procedure, the research team:

• asked people what they thought about having a CamPROBE biopsy and how painful it was
• checked for signs of infection 
• looked at the tissue samples in the lab to see if they contained any prostate cancer cells

Results
A total of 40 men took part in this trial:

• 19 hadn’t had a biopsy before
• 21 had already had a biopsy 

Diagram 1

The team took a total of 583 samples of tissue. The most common number they took per person was 12. The procedure took between 13 and 40 minutes, and the most common amount of time was 25 minutes.

The researchers asked the men to score their pain during the biopsy on a scale of 0 to 10. The scores ranged from 0 to 7, and the most common score was 3 out of 10 (mild pain).

They asked the 21 men who’d also had a TRUS biopsy which type of biopsy they would recommend to other people to have:

• 18 said a CamPROBE biopsy
• 2 said a TRUS biopsy
• 1 said either type of biopsy

Bar Chart 1

They looked at how many men had cancer cells in their CamPROBE biopsy samples. They found it was 13 out of the 19 men (68%) who had not had a biopsy before. This means the CamPROBE biospy is as good as other biopsies, if not a little better.

Side effects
None of the people taking part had any signs of infection in the month after they had a CamPROBE biopsy. There were no issues with the CamPROBE device not working and no safety concerns during the procedure.

Conclusion
The research team concluded that the CamPROBE device was safe to use for prostate biopsies and didn’t cause too much pain. They suggest it could become an alternative to TRUS biopsies. 

They recommend more trials are done to compare it to other ways of taking prostate biopsies. They also recommend looking at other aspects such as cost.

Where this information comes from    
We have based this summary on information from the research team. The information they sent us has been reviewed by independent specialists (peer reviewed ) and published in a medical journal. The figures we quote above were provided by the trial team who did the research. We have not analysed the data ourselves.