Dr. Dahut on Using MRI Screening for Prostate Cancer

William L. Dahut, MD, senior investigator and section chief, Genitourinary Malignancies Branch, head, Prostate Cancer Clinical Research Section, clinical director and scientific director for clinical research, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, discusses multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as an alternative screening technique to prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing in prostate cancer.

MRI can identify more prostate cancers compared with PSA, says Dahut. Through a scoring system, physicians can determine the likelihood of prostate cancer in a specific lesion. As such, MRI screening has the ability to find cancers that are not routinely biopsied in the clinic, says Dahut. For men with high PSA and a negative biopsy, this is particularly important.

Moreover, recent studies have shown that MRI screening is capable of predicting disease outcome. Specifically, among men with genetic mutations like BRCA2 which are associated with a greater mortality, explains Dahut.

Dahut hopes that the use of MRI becomes widespread for early detection and monitoring of prostate cancer; however, caution should be used to prevent overutilization.