Biopsy accuracy

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Hi all, today I spoke with my Cancer nurse about how my biopsy was performed purely because I’m worried that they may not of hit the spot where my PIRAD 4 lesion is from the MRI. She said that 15 cores were taken and 3 of those were in the area of concern (peripheral zone) and the rest were at random around the other areas of my prostate, with 1 of those cores showing a 4mm Gleason 3+3 in the anterior zone.

So, am I worrying about nothing or is 3 cores adequate to identify if the PIRAD 4 lesion is cancerous? It’s just making very anxious that something maybe missed.

many thanks

  • Hi  .

    If you have had an MRI guided biopsy then the reviews indicate that they are 91-93% accurate at picking up cancer cells in the targeted area. Things which can influence the accuracy are the size of the prostate. If you have a normal size then a 15 core biopsy has been pretty comprehensive. Your profile says that you have a 14mm lesion in the peripheral zone so this would have provided a good target for the 3 cores.

  • Thank you very much for replying as always..I had a standard trans perineal biopsy I guess they used my MRI images to target the lesion. It wasn’t the fusion method whereI  think they overlay the mri so I works together with the ultrasound probe and targets the lesion more accurately. I’m just a little worried that something may have been missed 

    thank you very much