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Imaging-guided biopsies: Is there a preferred strategy to choose?

Posted in Bio Instrumentation in Experimental Life Sciences Research, CANCER BIOLOGY & Innovations in Cancer Therapy, Imaging-based Cancer Patient Management, Medical Devices R&D Investment, tagged biopsy needles, brain lesion, breast biopsy, breast cancer, breast cancer screening, directed biopsies, guided biopsies, health, http www youtube, Magnetic resonance imaging, magnetic tracking, mammography, medicine, open mri systems, prostat cancer screening, Prostate, Prostate biopsy, Prostate cancer, prostate guided biopsies, prostate hisoscanning, Prostate-specific antigen, tracking, Transrectal ultrasonography, ultrasound guided breast biopsy on September 29, 2012| 7 Comments »

Imaging-guided biopsies: Is there a preferred strategy to choose?

Author: Dror Nir, PhD

The most stressful period in a cancer patients’ pathway is from the moment they fail a screening test or present with suspicious symptoms to the moment they are diagnosed. Today’s medical guidelines require histopathology findings as the only acceptable proof: positive results mean you are a cancer patient, negative results mean, well…maybe you are and maybe you are not. You now enter into what might be a very long period, sometime years, of uncertainty regarding your health and prospects. And why?

Because the substance for histopathology is acquired by biopsies, and biopsies are known to be inaccurate. For example, breast and prostate biopsies fail to find 25% to 35% of the cancer lesions at the first biopsy session.

Therefore, it is not surprising that from the beginning of this procedure, medical practitioners look for ways to incorporate imaging into the workflow. In the last decade, significant progress has been made in the introduction of imaging-guided biopsies. The most common modalities were ultrasound and CT/mammography. Recently, as the industry solved the issues of magnetic field compatibility for biopsy needles and the introduction of open MRI systems, MRI-guided biopsies were also made possible.

Ultrasound-guided biopsies are by far the most commonly used procedure. Why? Because they can be often performed as an office-based procedure. Here are some interesting links to YouTube videos describing such procedures:

Prostate

Prostate Ultrasound and Prostate Biopsy by Dr. Neil Baum

Transrectal ultrasound (Trus) Biopsy of the prostate

Breast

Ultrasound-Guided Breast Biopsy

Breast Tissue Biopsy

The main advantages: they are easily accessible, low cost and quick. The disadvantages of these procedures are that they are very much operator dependent, rather than standardized, and there are no quality assurance guidelines attached. Efforts to standardize ultrasound-based biopsies and increase their efficiency are evident by recent introductions of ultrasound systems into the market , which support real-time guided biopsies and ultrasound applications that perform real-time biopsy tracking. But these systems are still far from being widely available. I will touch on this issue in my upcoming posts as I am part of these efforts.

CT and Mammography guided biopsies require more sophisticated equipment and well-trained operators. As an example:

Breast Biopsy – What To Expect

The main advantage: if you return to the same operator, the process is likely to be reproducible. The disadvantages are identical to that of ultrasound-based biopsies. It is worthwhile to note that, recently, radiologists who perform biopsies are required to go through a certification process. Still, such certification demands vary between the various radiology societies.

MRI-guided biopsies are an even more sophisticate and complex procedure:

Prostate:

DynaTRIM Video

DynaTRIM Intervention

An interesting quote from Dr. Hashim U. Ahmed, M.D., MRCS, Division of Urology Department of Surgery, University College of London (https://mail.google.com/mail/u/1/?shva=1#label/Work%2FLinks%2FAuntMinnie/139d9c5bc6bda842): “Advocating the widespread use of MRI before biopsy in a population of men with risk parameters for harboring prostate cancer has a number of advantages, which might ultimately benefit the care these men undergo. Increasing the detection of prostate cancer that requires treatment while avoiding biopsy – and hence unnecessary treatment – in those with insignificant or no cancer are compelling arguments for this approach.”

Breast

MRI Breast Biopsy – Diagnostic and Biopsy Services for Breast Evaluation

I recommend reading the following article regarding the use of Open MRI to guide freehand biopsies of breast lesions. Especially interesting is the discussion where the authors give a good description of the difficulties in breast biopsies they are trying to overcome in order to achieve good lesion sampling.

MR-guided Freehand Biopsy of Breast Lesions in a 1.0-T Open MR Imager with a Near-Real-time Interactive Platform: Preliminary Experience Frank Fischbach, MD, et. al

http://radiology.rsna.org/content/early/2012/08/14/radiol.12110981.full?sid=bd45ceb4-9c8d-4ffc-b80b-0345ee679b4e

The question remains: which biopsy procedure is the best? And does this question have one coherent answer, i.e. one that will satisfy the patients, the doctors and the health-care insurers? Will the answer to this question remain the subject of endless uncoordinated clinical studies?

If anyone who reads this post knows on methodological scientific or regulatory initiatives aimed at answering this question on a level of global guide lines I would appreciate his comment.

Written by: Dror Nir, PhD.