“Our team feels this platform is a very promising technique, allowing us to repeat biopsies and giving us higher probabilities of locating cancer within the prostate,” explains Thomas J. Polascik, M.D., associate professor of urologic surgery at Duke University Medical Center and co-author of the study.
The Duke Prostate Center study evaluated 68 patients using the TargetScan technology to guide prostate biopsies. From a system generated three-dimensional map of the prostate, the TargetScan algorithm provided a biopsy plan based on measured prostate dimensions.
The system’s fixed template provided physicians with precise position locations from which to draw biopsy samples. The system also maintains the fixed template as a starting point for future prostate biopsies targeting the same region of interest. TargetScan provides a sound basis for active surveillance.
“Our system is based on the physician’s need to locate specific areas within the gland, to repeat biopsies in the future if necessary, confidently design treatment plans, and to provide information that contributes to reducing patient side effects,” says Robert Mills, president, Envisioneering Medical Technologies, the developer of the technology.
