Dr. Leonardo Kayat Bittencourt discusses advantages of prostate MRI

In this video, Leonardo Kayat Bittencourt, MD, PhD, provides an overview of prostate MRI and its role in prostate cancer screening. Bittencourt is vice chair of innovation in the department of radiology at UH Cleveland Medical Center, a radiologist in abdominal imaging at UH Cleveland Medical Center, associate professor of radiology at Case Western Reserve University, School of Medicine, and a member of the Cancer Imaging Program at Case Comprehensive Cancer Center in Cleveland, Ohio.

Transcription:

Please provide an overview of prostate MRI and its role in prostate cancer screening/detection.

Of course it is by now known that I'm a big enthusiast of prostate MRI since my training years, but evidence has mounted to support, beyond my personal opinion, the technique as the most important, non invasive diagnostic modality for the detection of clinically significant prostate cancer. So, we have information today from a number of well-powered, well-designed prospective studies showing that performing an MRI before the decision to do the first biopsy adds value to the population. "Adds value" means that you will be doing fewer biopsies in general, and the biopsies that you will be performing will have a higher yield of clinically significant cancer. And if you combine MRI with fusion techniques for biopsy that consider the MRI findings into targeting the best course toward the most suspicious lesions, you're not only going to get a higher yield of clinically significant cancer overall, but you will also get a better staging of your patient and a better risk classification toward the best treatment decisions. So this is a summary of the body of work that the literature has reached us today.

This transcription was edited for clarity.