Clinical Value of Core Lenght in Saturation Prostate Biopsy

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the effect of core length on cancer detection in saturation prostate biopsy. We hypothesized that increasing mean and total core length in saturation prostate biopsy may allow more tissue sampling, thus, may increase the prostate cancer detection rate. Materials and Methods: We retrospectively analyzed medical records of 145 patients who underwent 24-core transrectal ultrasound-guided saturation biopsy at our institution. We evaluated the clinopathological factors, including age, prostate specific antigen (PSA), prostate volume, mean core length and the total biopsy core length. The patients were divided into 3 groups according to their total biopsy core length; group 1: <20 cm, group 2: 20-30 cm and group 3: >30 cm. These groups were compared according to age, PSA value, prostate volume and cancer detection rate. Results: The mean age, core length and total core length were 62.4±7.0 years, 10.91±1.8 mm, and 26.2±4.7 cm, respectively. The overall cancer detection rate was 33.8%. There was no statistically significant difference in mean core length and total core length between patients diagnosed with prostate cancer and those without it. The cancer detection rates in group 1, 2 and 3 were 25%, 37.4% and 23.1%, respectively. When these 3 groups were compared with each other, group 2 had a statistically significantly higher cancer detection rate relative to group 1 (p=0.001). Multivariate analysis showed no statistically difference in cancer detection rate between the groups (p=0.302). Conclusion: Mean and total core length may not have any significant effect on prostate cancer detection in patients undergoing saturation prostate biopsy.