Active surveillance criteria in the age of targeted biopsies.

Abstract

116 Background: Many urologists are now using active surveillance (AS) to manage patients with low-risk prostate cancer. A variety of criteria have been proposed to select patients for AS. A key feature of these criteria is Gleason Group as determined by systematic or “random” biopsies (SB). In this study, we examined the progression of Gleason Group (GG) detected only on SB compared to patients with positive MRI-fusion or “targeted” biopsies (FB). Methods: A prospectively maintained database was queried for all patients who underwent an MRI guided FB and SB from 2007 to 2016 and chose AS as their primary management strategy. Patents with GG 1 or 2 were eligible. Patients were then followed with yearly PSA, exam, MRI and biopsy if warranted. FBs were reviewed to determine GG progression. We divided patients into those who had cancer detected on SB only and those who had positive FBs with or without a positive SB. Results: A total of 162 patients met our criteria with 73 having an initial positive FB and 89 having cancer only on SB and a negative FB. Median follow-up was 27.62 (4.14 – 96.56) and 33.83 (3.45-99.84) months, respectively. The two groups were similar in age (64.49 ± 6.57 vs. 62.08 ± 6.92 years, p = 0.03) and PSA (6.23 ± 4.23 vs. 5.67 ± 3.98 ng/ml, p = 0.39). The median time to pathologic progression for GG 1 patients with initial FB positive was 53.88 months and those with GG 1 on initial SB was 80.81 months (p = 0.003). The median time to pathologic progression for GG 2 patients with initial FB positive was 36.26 months and those with GG 2 on initial SB was 76.01 months (p = 0.099). Conclusions: Previously accepted AS criteria have been based on SBs. However, those patients placed on AS after a positive FB progressed fast than cancer detected only on SB. With MRI and FBs more routinely used in clinical practice, clinicians could use this information from FBs to better stratify and closely monitor patients during AS. This research was supported by the Intramural Research Program of the National Cancer Institute, NIH.