To report outcomes within the Rapid Assessment for Prostate Imaging and Diagnosis (RAPID) diagnostic pathway, introduced to reduce patient and healthcare burdens and standardize delivery of pre-biopsy mpMRI and transperineal biopsy.
2130 patients from 3 centres who completed the RAPID pathway (3/April/2017-31/March/2020) were consecutively entered as a prospective audit not requiring ethics committee review. These were also compared to a pre-RAPID cohort of 2,435 patients. In RAPID, patients with an MRI score 4 or 5 and those with PSA density >/=0.12 and MRI score 3 were advised to undergo a biopsy. Primary outcomes were rates of biopsy and cancer detection. Secondary outcomes included comparison of transperineal biopsy techniques, patient acceptability and changes in time to diagnosis before and after RAPID.
Median age and PSA were 66 years and 6.6ng/ml, respectively. Biopsy could be omitted in 43% (920/2130). A further 7.9% (168/2130) of patients declined a recommendation for biopsy. The percentage of biopsies avoided between sites did vary (45% vs 36% vs 51%, p<0.001). 30% (221/742) had a local-anaesthetic (grid-and-stepper) transperineal biopsy. Clinically significant cancer detection (any Gleason >/=3+4) was 26% (560/2130) and detection of Gleason 3+3 alone constituted 5.8% (124/2130): detection of Gleason 3+3 did not significantly vary between sites (p=0.7). Among participants who received a transperineal targeted biopsy, there was no difference in cancer detection rates between local anaesthetic, sedation and general anaesthetic. In the 2,435 patients from the pre-RAPID era time-to-diagnosis was 32.1 days (95%CI 29.3-34.9) compared to 15.9 days (95%CI 12.9-34.9) in RAPID. 141 consecutive patient satisfaction surveys indicated a high satisfaction rate with the pathway; 50% indicated a preference for having all tests on a single day.
The RAPID prostate cancer diagnostic pathway allows 43% of men to avoid a biopsy while preserving good detection of clinically-significant cancers and low detection of insignificant cancers although there was some centre-level variations.
BJU international. 2022 Sep 22 [Epub ahead of print]
David Eldred-Evans, Martin J Connor, Mariana Bertoncelli Tanaka, Edward Bass, Deepika Reddy, Uma Walters, Luke Stroman, Easter Espinosa, Raj Das, Nalin Khosla, Henry Tam, Elizabeth Pegers, Hasan Qazi, Stephen Gordon, Mathias Winkler, Hashim U Ahmed
Imperial Prostate, Division of Surgery, Department of Surgery and Cancer, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, UK., St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK., Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals, London, UK., Imperial Urology, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, London, UK., RM Partners West London Cancer Alliance, London, UK.