A study looking at high definition MRI scans and ultrasound guided biopsy for diagnosing prostate cancer (MULTIPROS)

Cancer type:

Prostate cancer

Status:

Results

Phase:

Other

This study was done to find out if multi parametric MRI (mpMRI) scans could help diagnose prostate cancer. It was for men who were due to have tests to find out if they had prostate cancer.

The study was open for people to join between 2015 and 2020. The team published the results in 2023.

More about this trial

When this trial was done, doctors usually took a sample of cells (a biopsy) from the prostate to diagnose prostate cancer. To do this, they pass a fine needle along an ultrasound probe and into the prostate gland. This is a transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) guided biopsy.

Sometimes prostate cancer grows very slowly and doesn’t cause any problems or need treatment. Doctors don’t know if this is the case until they take the biopsy.

This study looked at a type of MRI scan called multi parametric MRI (mpMRI). This is a high definition MRI scan.

Everyone taking part had an mpMRI scan. People whose scan didn’t show signs of cancer had a TRUS biopsy as usual. People whose scan showed they may have cancer were put into a treatment group at random. They had a biopsy using either:

ultrasound as a guide (a TRUS biopsy), or
the mpMRI scan results as a guide

The main aims of the study were to find out if mpMRI scans can:

help diagnose prostate cancer
tell the difference between cancers which need treatment and those which don’t
be useful to guide the biopsy and make results more reliable

Summary of results

A total of 582 men had an mpMRI scan as part of this study. The scan showed signs of prostate cancer in 413 men. They were put into a treatment group at random:

206 men had a TRUS biopsy
207 men had a biopsy using the scan results

The 169 men whose scan didn’t show signs of cancer had a TRUS biopsy as usual.

The study team looked at how many biopsy samples contained cancer cells. They compared this to the mpMRI scan results.

The results showed that the mpMRI scan correctly identified:

just over 7 out of 10 (72%) biopsy samples that had cancer which needed treatment
just over 7 out of 10 (71%) biopsy samples that didn’t have cancer, or had cancer which didn’t need treatment

The team concluded that mpMRI scans could be useful to help diagnose prostate cancer. And that using mpMRI scan results during the biopsy is more accurate.

More detailed information
There is more information about this research in the reference below.

Multicenter Randomized Trial Assessing MRI and Image-guided Biopsy for Suspected Prostate Cancer: The MULTIPROS Study
Cheng Wei and others
Radiology, 2023. Volume 308, issue 1.

Please note, the information we link to here is not in plain English. It has been written for healthcare professionals and researchers.

Where this information comes from
We have based this summary on the information in the article above. This has been reviewed by independent specialists (peer reviewed Open a glossary item ) and published in a medical journal. We have not analysed the data ourselves.