Integration of magnetic resonance imaging into prostate cancer nomograms

Abstract

The decision whether to undergo prostate biopsy must be carefully weighed. Nomograms have widely been utilized as risk calculators to improve the identification of prostate cancer by weighing several clinical factors. The recent inclusion of multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (mpMRI) findings into nomograms has drastically improved their nomogram’s accuracy at identifying clinically significant prostate cancer. Several novel nomograms have incorporated mpMRI to aid in the decision-making process in proceeding with a prostate biopsy in patients who are biopsy-naïve, have a prior negative biopsy, or are on active surveillance. Furthermore, novel nomograms have incorporated mpMRI to aid in treatment planning of definitive therapy. This literature review highlights how the inclusion of mpMRI into prostate cancer nomograms has improved upon their performance, potentially reduce unnecessary procedures, and enhance the individual risk assessment by improving confidence in clinical decision-making by both patients and their care providers.

Integrating risk calculators into routine clinical workflow for the detection of prostate cancer: next steps to achieve widespread adoption

“…Due to its widespread use and high fidelity, the integration of MRI findings, as a functional biomarker of risk, is critical in the current and future generations of risk calculators used for prostate cancer detection [4]. Hence, risk calculators integrating MRI findings when available, can truly derive recommendations based on readily available, pre-biopsy datapoints to help guide shared decision-making in the prebiopsy setting, with the ultimate goals of minimizing the number and frequency of biopsies, without compromising the diagnosis of clinically-significant prostate cancers that would benefit from early diagnosis and curative treatment [5,6].…”