Purpose: To evaluate cancer detection with targeted biopsy of the prostate performed on the basis of high-frequency Doppler ultrasonographic (US) imaging findings versus cancer detection with a modified sextant biopsy approach with laterally directed cores.
Materials and methods: Sixty-two patients were prospectively evaluated with gray-scale, color, and power Doppler transrectal US performed with patients in the lithotomy position. Gray-scale and Doppler findings within each sextant were rated on a five-point scale. Up to four targeted biopsy specimens were obtained from each patient on the basis of Doppler findings; this was followed by a modified sextant biopsy. Conditional logistic regression analysis was performed to compare the positive yields for targeted and sextant biopsy specimens. Clustered receiver operating characteristic analysis was performed to compare gray-scale, color, and power Doppler detection of cancer at sextant biopsy sites.
Results: Cancer was detected in 18 (29%) of 62 patients, including 11 patients in whom cancer was detected with both sextant and targeted biopsy, six in whom cancer was detected only with sextant biopsy, and one in whom cancer was detected only with targeted biopsy. The positive biopsy rate for targeted biopsy (24 [13%] of 185 cores) was slightly higher than that for sextant biopsy (36 [9.7%] of 372 cores; P =.1). The odds ratio for cancer detection with targeted versus sextant cores was 1.8 (95% CI: 0.9, 3.7). Receiver operating characteristic analysis demonstrated that overall identification of positive sextant biopsy sites was close to random chance for gray-scale (area under the curve, 0.53), color Doppler (area under the curve, 0.50), and power Doppler (area under the curve, 0.47) imaging.
Conclusion: Targeted biopsy performed on the basis of high-frequency color or power Doppler findings will miss a substantial number of cancers detected with sextant biopsy.