Value of contrast ultrasonography in the detection of significant prostate cancer: Correlation with radical prostatectomy specimens

BACKGROUND. The presented study has investigated a possible improvement of imaging prostate cancer: three-dimensional contrast-enhanced power Doppler ultrasonography (3D-CE-PDU). METHODS. Seventy patients with biopsy proven prostate cancer and scheduled for radical retropubic prostatectomy received a 3D-CE-PDU investigation before surgery. Two experts analyzed the ultrasound images. The ultrasound images were correlated to the whole-mount sections of the prostate specimen. The correlation protocol consisted of three evaluation steps. RESULTS. In total, 153 prostate tumors were found in the 70 prostate specimens: 61 tumors <5 mm, 93 tumors greater than or equal to5 mm. The diagnosis of clinical significant and insignificant prostate cancer was made in 85 and 88% of the patients for expert I and II, respectively. Diagnosis by imaging improved from 61% (43 of 70 of the prostate cancers) for standard detection tools to an average 86% (60 of 70 prostate cancers) for 3D-CE-PDU. CONCLUSION. 3D-CE-PDU improves the detection of prostate cancer in this group of prostate cancer patients. The use of 3D-CE-PDU in the clinic is questionable as indications are still unclear.