Research finds ultrasound scans can diagnose prostate cancer

LONDON: One thing that rang the bell in everyone’s mind and made them afraid was when they were asked to take MRI, the procedure used to detect cancer. However, new research has found that good old ultrasound scanning can also be used to detect cancer. This study found that ultrasound tests can be used to detect cases of prostate cancer.
The results of the study have been published in the ‘Lancet Oncology’. Researchers at Imperial College London, College University London and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust have found that new ultrasound scanning types can diagnose most cases of prostate cancer with good accuracy in clinical trials involving 370 men. The ultrasound scanning only passed 4.3 percent of prostate cancer cases more importantly clinically – cancer that must be treated than monitored – compared to the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan that is currently used to detect prostate cancer. MRI scanning is expensive and time consuming.

The team believes that ultrasound scanning must be used as the first test in the regulation of public health care and in low and medium-income countries that do not have easy access to high-quality MRI scanning. They said, it can be used in combination with current MRI scanning to maximize cancer detection. Professor Hashim Ahmed, the main writer of the research and chairman of the urology at the Imperial College London, said that “prostate cancer is the most common cancer in the UK. One in six men will be diagnosed with their disease and the number is expected to rise.” “MRI scanning is One of the tests we use to diagnose prostate cancer.

Although this effective scanning is expensive, it takes up to 40 minutes to appear and is not easily available for all. Also, there are some patients who cannot scan MRI like those who have a hip replacement or claustrophobia fear. As a list of waiting for cancer build as a result of Covid-19 pandemic, there is a real need to find more efficient and cheaper tests to diagnose prostate cancer, “he added.” Our study was the first to show that special types of scanning ultrasound can be used as potential tests to detect cases of clinically significant prostate cancer. They can detect most cases of prostate cancer with good accuracy, even though MRI’s scan is a little better, “he said.

“We believe that this test can be used in low and medium income settings where access to expensive MRI equipment is difficult and prostate cancer cases grow,” he said. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the UK with around 52,300 new cases diagnosed every year. It develops when cells in the prostate grow in an uncontrolled way. Prostate cancer develops slowly and symptoms such as blood in urine do not arise until this disease develops. It usually affects men more than 50 and often men with a history of diseases Black men affected by diseases and deaths from prostate cancer have now overtaken them from breast cancer. One of the main methods for diagnosing prostate cancer is a special type of magnetic magnetic scanning (MRI) which is called multi-parametric scanning MRI (MPMRI), which helps doctors see if there are cancers in the prostate and how fast the cancer tends to grow. However, scanning takes 40 minutes and costs £ 350-450.

The new study saw the use of various types of imaging called multi-parametric ultrasound (MPUSS), which uses sound waves to see the prostate. The test involves the use of a probe called transducer to create prostate images. It is placed into the rectum and sends sound waves that bounce organs and other structures. This is then made into an organ image. The doctor who does the test also uses a type of special extra ultrasound imaging that sees how rigid the tissues and how many blood supply networks. This is called elastography, doppler and a contrast increase with microBubles. When cancer is more crowded and has a larger blood supply, they appear more clearly. Although MPUs are available more than MPMRI, there are no large-scale studies to validate their effectiveness as a test to detect cases of prostate cancer.

In a new trial, it was called a diagnosis of cancer with multipalogly ultrasonography from the prostate (Cadmus), the team recruited 370 men with the risk of prostate cancer. They were identified following the initial tests such as the antigen test (PSA) specifically prostate to help detect prostate cancer – and / or abnormal digital anal examination – tests that examine the rectum, pelvis, and lower abdomen of someone lower. The study took place in seven hospitals in the UK including the main sites of Charing Cross Hospital, part of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, between March 2016-November 2019. These people were given a separate MPMRI scan.

It was then followed by a biopsy – which involves using thin needles to take small samples of networks from the prostate to analyze under the microscope to check cancer – for 257 patients who have positive MPMS test results or mpmri. The team then compares the results of the test. Cancer was detected in 133 men, with 83 men who were diagnosed with significant clinical cancer. Individually, MPUS detected 66 clinically significant cancer cases compared to MPMRI which detected 77 cases.

Although Mpuss detected 4.3 percent less prostate cancer is clinically important compared to MPMRI, the researchers said this method would lead to 11.1 percent more biopsy patients. This is because MPUSS sometimes appears in abnormal areas even though there are no cancers. The researchers believe that this test can be used as an alternative to MPMRI as the first test for patients at risk of prostate cancer, especially where MPMRI cannot be done. Both imaging tests longn for clinically important cancers detected by the others, so that they use both of them will increase the detection of prostate cancer that are clinically compared to using each test.

First author, Dr. Alistair Gray (Division of UCL Surgery and Intervention Sciences), said, “Our results provide accurate tests for prostate cancer in patients who previously without using cheap scanning and easy to do.”