Prostate cancer imaging, diagnosis time may be reduced from weeks to days
Three London hospitals are planning to condense the time necessary to be screened for prostate cancer from six weeks to a matter of days under the supervision of the National Health Service in England.
According to a recent article from BBC News, the "one-stop" service will complete an multiparametric MRI scan, a biopsy exam, and additional hospital care and supervision all in one day. The mpMRI will provide even high-quality imagery than a standard MRI scan, providing up to 40 percent of patients with a same day diagnosis.
"Fast access to high-quality prostate MRI allows many men to avoid invasive biopsies as well as allowing precision biopsy in those men requiring it to find high risk tumors much earlier," said Hashim Ahmed, MD, professor and chairman of urology at Imperial College London. "What we are hoping to do is show the NHS that this can be done, that it can be done cost-effectively and that we can improve the outcomes for men in a much better way than we were doing."
Although some radiologists are expressing reservations about the technique, its trial run will test 5,000 men at three west London hospitals over the next two years.
Read more at the BBC:
A recent graduate from Dominican University (IL) with a bachelor’s in journalism, Melissa joined TriMed’s Chicago team in 2017 covering all aspects of health imaging. She’s a fan of singing and playing guitar, elephants, a good cup of tea, and her golden retriever Cooper.