Category: Biopsy

The term “liquid biopsy” is appearing with increasing frequency in published literature. The fact that it’s more common than ever does not mean we’ve finally replaced a needle extraction of tissue. However, a blood or urine sample is a far less invasive way to gather a large quantity of information to profile a patient’s prostate cancer (PCa), thanks to numerous biological clues that tumor cells release into the bloodstream. keep reading

Up till now, prostate cancer has been the only tumor cancer diagnosed by random luck. That’s right, random luck. The most common type of prostate biopsy is guided by transrectal ultrasound, or TRUS. It is considered the “gold standard” for prostate biopsy because it’s most widely used by urologists... keep reading

A couple of years ago I saw a patient who previously had three negative TRUS-guided prostate biopsies. Because his PSA had been slowly rising from 4 to 10, the number of biopsy needles had increased from 10 to 12 to 14... keep reading

More than six years ago, we published a blog post in hopes of reducing patient fears that a needle biopsy of the prostate could spread prostate cancer. Back then, we referred to occurrence of track seeding in prostate biopsies as exceedingly rare. This is what the latest research tells us today... keep reading

Early in 2021, two separate literature reviews were conducted, and both had similar findings. The first included 7 full text articles from which data was assembled and analyzed. Based on standardized erectile function self-report questionnaires, the authors found that... keep reading

A guidance system is a virtual or physical device, or a group of devices implementing a controlling the movement of a ship, aircraft, missile, rocket, satellite, or any other moving object. (Wikipedia) When you read the above quote, what comes to mind? For some, “guidance system” suggests their GPS navigation system to get them where keep reading

The title question is a decoy. Here’s the real issue: How important is your body? The more you value your body’s health, the more it’s worth seeing the best expert available if something goes wrong. It’s like anything you love, appreciate and value. When all is well, we tend to take for granted that matters keep reading

Fusion guided prostate biopsies are the new darling of urologic diagnostic procedures. For decades, the transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) guided 12-plus needle sampling of the gland was the prostate cancer (PCa) diagnostic gold standard, despite its widely recognized shortcoming: Inaccuracy rates of at least 30% on average Overdetecting insignificant PCa while often missing significant PCa Tends keep reading