Using biomarkers in patients with positive multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging: 4Kscore predicts the presence of cancer outside the index lesion.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate if the blood biomarker, 4Kscore, in addition to multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging information could identify patients who would benefit from undergoing only a targeted biopsy. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed a population of 256 men with positive multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging who underwent standard + targeted biopsy at Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, NY, USA. 4Kscore (OPKO Health, Miami, FL, USA) was sampled from all patients before biopsy. Uni- and multivariable binary logistic regression analyses were carried out to predict clinically significant prostate cancer, defined as International Society of Urological Pathology grade group ≥2, in standard biopsy cores. The model with the best area under the curve was selected and internal validation was carried out using the leave-one-out cross-validation. RESULTS: The developed model showed an area under the curve of 0.86. Carrying out only targeted biopsy in patients with a model-derived probability <12.5% resulted in 39.5% (n = 101) fewer standard biopsies and a 33.9% (n = 20) reduction of detecting grade group 1 disease, while missing grade group ≥2 in 5.2% (n = 4) using standard biopsy only and 1.1% (n = 1) using standard biopsy + targeted biopsy. CONCLUSIONS: 4Kscore in combination with multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging can help to reduce unnecessary standard biopsy and decrease detection of clinically insignificant prostate cancer.

Staging Accuracy of Multiparametric Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Caucasian and African American Men Undergoing Radical Prostatectomy.

PURPOSE: We compared the performance of multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging for the prediction of extraprostatic extension in African American and Caucasian American men and evaluated racial disparities in pathological outcomes after radical prostatectomy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We identified 975 patients who underwent radical prostatectomy with preoperative multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging between January 2013 and April 2019 at our institution. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed predicting pathological extraprostatic extension, high grade prostate cancer (final pathology GGG [Gleason Grade Group] 3 or greater) in the overall population and pathological upgrading (final pathology GGG 3 or greater) in patients with a diagnosis of GGG 1-2 prostate cancer. Adverse pathology was defined as pT3 and/or GGG 3 or greater. RESULTS: A total of 221 (23%) patients were African American. Preoperatively 594 (60.9%) were GGG 1-2 (low risk group) and 381 (39.1%) GGG 3 or greater (high risk group). In the low risk group rates of pathological extraprostatic extension (18% vs 12.8%, p=0.14), adverse pathology (18% vs 13.4%, p=0.2) or upgrading (9.4% vs 12.1%, p=0.4) were similar between races. Similarly, in the high risk group there was no difference in rates of pathological extraprostatic extension. On multivariable analysis multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging predicted the presence of extraprostatic extension (OR 1.80, 95% CI 1.29-2.50) and high grade prostate cancer (OR 1.82, 95% CI 1.25-2.67) on final pathology. Conversely, race did not predict the outcomes of interest (all values p >0.05). Multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging showed comparable sensitivity (22.22% vs 27.84%), specificity (89.2% vs 79.2%), positive predictive value (89.2% vs 83.4%) and negative predictive value (89.2% vs 83.4%) between African American and Caucasian America men, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The accuracy of multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging in staging prostate cancer was similar in African American and Caucasian American patients and no difference was found between races in pathological outcomes after radical prostatectomy. These findings suggest that access to and use of advanced diagnostic tests may help mitigate prostate cancer racial disparities.

Unified model involving genomics, magnetic resonance imaging and prostate-specific antigen density outperforms individual co-variables at predicting biopsy upgrading in patients on active surveillance for low risk prostate cancer.

BACKGROUND: Active surveillance (AS) is the reference standard treatment for the management of low risk prostate cancer (PCa). Accurate assessment of tumor aggressiveness guides recruitment to AS programs to avoid conservative treatment of intermediate and higher risk patients. Nevertheless, underestimating the disease risk may occur in some patients recruited, with biopsy upgrading and the concomitant potential for delayed treatment. AIM: To evaluate the accuracy of mpMRI and GPS for the prediction of biopsy upgrading during active surveillance (AS) management of prostate cancer (PCa). METHOD: A retrospective analysis was performed on 144 patients recruited to AS from October 2013 to December 2020. Median follow was 4.8 (IQR 3.6, 6.3) years. Upgrading was defined as upgrading to biopsy grade group ≥2 on follow up biopsies. Cox proportional hazard regression was used to investigate the effect of PSA density (PSAD), baseline Prostate Imaging-Reporting and Data System (PI-RADS) v2.1 score and GPS on upgrading. Time-to-event outcome, defined as upgrading, was estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method with log-rank test. RESULTS: Overall rate of upgrading was 31.9% (n = 46). PSAD was higher in the patients who were upgraded (0.12 vs. 0.08 ng/ml2 , p = .005), while no significant difference was present for median GPS in the overall cohort (overall median GPS 21; 22 upgrading vs. 20 no upgrading, p = .2044). On univariable cox proportional hazard regression analysis, the factors associated with increased risk of biopsy upgrading were PSA (HR = 1.30, CI 1.16-1.47, p = <.0001), PSAD (HR = 1.08, CI 1.05-1.12, p = <.0001) and higher PI-RADS score (HR = 3.51, CI 1.56-7.91, p = .0024). On multivariable cox proportional hazard regression analysis, only PSAD (HR = 1.10, CI 1.06-1.14, p = <.001) and high PI-RADS score (HR = 4.11, CI 1.79-9.44, p = .0009) were associated with upgrading. A cox regression model combining these three clinical features (PSAD ≥0.15 ng/ml2 at baseline, PI-RADS Score and GPS) yielded a concordance index of 0.71 for the prediction of upgrading. CONCLUSION: In this study PSAD has higher accuracy over baseline PI-RADS score and GPS score for the prediction of PCa upgrading during AS. However, combined use of PSAD, GPS and PI-RADS Score yielded the highest predictive ability with a concordance index of 0.71.

Immunotherapy in prostate cancer: current state and future perspectives.

Metastatic castrate resistant prostate cancer (PCa) remains an incurable entity. In the era of immunotherapy, the complex PCa microenvironment poses a unique challenge to the successful application of this class of agents. However, in the last decade, a tremendous effort has been made to explore this field of therapeutics. In this review, the physiology of the cancer immunity cycle is highlighted in the context of the prostate tumor microenvironment, and the current evidence for use of various classes of immunotherapy agents including vaccines (dendritic cell based, viral vector based and DNA/mRNA based), immune checkpoint inhibitors, Chimeric antigen receptor T cell therapy, antibody-mediated radioimmunotherapy, antibody drug conjugates, and bispecific antibodies, is consolidated. Finally, the future directions for combinatorial approaches to combat PCa are discussed.