How can we predict the active surveillance candidates meeting all Epstein criteria prior to prostate biopsy to avoid overdiagnosis?

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the effectiveness of PSA, prostate volume (PV) and free-to-total PSA ratio (fPSA%) in predicting patients meeting all active surveillance criteria, including Epstein criteria.

METHOD: Retrospective analysis was made of the data of 1901 men who underwent transrectal ultrasound (TRUS)-guided prostate biopsy in our clinic between January 2015 and December 2019. The active surveillance criteria were determined as Gleason score ≤6, when specified ≤2 positive cores with <50% cancer involvement in every positive core, a clinical T1c, a PSA <10ng/mL and a PSA density <0.15 ng/mL/cc. Patients who met all active surveillance criteria were included in Group 1, and other patients with prostate cancer were included in Group 2.

RESULTS

The study included 336 patients with available data of age, total-free PSA levels, PV calculated by TRUS. Group 1 consisted of 82 patients and Group 2 consisted of 254 patients. PV and fPSA% were significantly higher and PSA was significantly lower in Group 1 than in Group 2. On multivariate analysis, the independent predictors were determined to be PSA and PV while fPSA% was not.

CONCLUSION

By using PSA and PV in predicting patients meeting all active surveillance criteria, unnecessary biopsies and ultimately overdiagnosis can be reduced.