Accuracy of the Vesical Imaging-Reporting and Data System (VIRADS) for pre-treatment staging of bladder cancer in an Australian cohort.

INTRODUCTION: To evaluate the performance of the Vesical Imaging-Reporting and Data System (VIRADS) in differentiating muscle-invasive and non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer and whether this reporting system improves inter-reader agreement. METHODS: Sixty-four cases of multiparametric 3 tesla bladder MRI from January 2014 to May 2020 were reviewed retrospectively. T2-weighted, diffusion and post-contrast images were reviewed. All magnetic resonance images were reported by a radiologist with 15 years' experience (Reader 1) and a final year radiology trainee with a special interest in urogenital imaging with 3 years of experience (Reader 2). Both readers were blinded to clinical history and histopathology results when scoring each lesion. RESULTS: The sensitivity and specificity for differentiating MIBC and NMIBC were 91% and 68%, respectively, for Reader 1 and 91% and 63%, respectively, for Reader 2. The inter-reader agreement for assigning VIRADS scores was 0.79. The area under the receiver operator curve for Reader 1 and 2 were not significantly different (Reader 1 = 0.79, Reader 2 = 0.77, P = 0.83). CONCLUSIONS: Staging of bladder cancer prior to treatment can be accurately and reliably diagnosed using VIRADS, a novel, standardised reporting system for bladder MRI.

In-gantry MRI guided prostate biopsy diagnosis of prostatitis and its relationship with PIRADS V.2 based score.

INTRODUCTION: The recent literature has focussed predominantly on prostate cancer detection which has been revolutionized by multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (mpMRI). Due to an overlap of features, prostatitis may mimic prostate cancer on MRI, especially in patients with chronic prostatitis. We retrospectively analysed our in-gantry MRI-guided biopsy (MRGB) results to determine incidental detection rate of prostatitis in Prostate Imaging Reporting and Data System (PIRADS) 3, 4 and 5 foci reported on diagnostic MRI of the prostate. METHODS: About 137 patients underwent in-gantry MRGB for lesions with PIRADS score of 3 or above. All the biopsies were performed utilizing the dynaTRIM™ system (Invio Inc, Germany) on a three-tesla MRI scanner (Ingenia 3.0T, Philips, Netherlands) by a Radiologist and a Urologist. RESULTS: We biopsied 228 lesions in 137 patients. There were 55 lesions that returned positive for prostate cancer with a Gleason Score of 3 + 3 = 6 or above. There were 62 lesions that showed inflammation. The distribution of these lesions was 3 (5%) in the central zone, 32 (52%) in the transitional zone and 27 (43%) in the peripheral zone. Inflammation was found in 36 (58%) PIRADS 3 lesions, 24 (39%) PIRADS 4 lesions and 2 (3%) PIRADS 5 lesions on pre biopsy MRI evaluation. CONCLUSION: In our series, biopsies which showed inflammation had a radiological appearance on mpMRI more likely of a PIRADS 3 or 4 lesions with only 3% of PIRADS 5 biopsies showing inflammation. This would suggest that a higher PIRADS score can more reliably differentiate between prostate cancer and prostatitis.

mp-MRI Prostate Characterised PIRADS 3 Lesions are Associated with a Low Risk of Clinically Significant Prostate Cancer - A Retrospective Review of 92 Biopsied PIRADS 3 Lesions.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether prostate image reporting and data system (PIRADS) 3 lesions as assessed by a 3T multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) represent clinically significant prostate cancer. METHOD: A retrospective review was performed on a series of consecutive patients who underwent MRI guided biopsy of the prostate for clinical suspicion of prostate cancer between January 2013 and March 2014. Demographic, clinical, MRI and biopsy data were reviewed and compared. The same 3T MRI without the use of an endo-rectal coil was employed to assess each patient, obtaining high resolution T2 weighted images, diffusion weighted imaging and dynamic contrast enhancement. The MRI data was sent to Dynacad software for analysis. A single experienced radiologist reported all the studies from this series using a modified PIRADS scoring system. Subsequently, all the lesions marked PIRADS 3 or above were targeted with 18G core biopsy using DynaTrim in-gantry MRI guidance system. Needle position targeting the lesion was recorded prior to each biopsy. All core biopsy samples were sent to one of two pathology laboratories where they were processed and reported as per the International Society of Urological Pathology protocols. RESULTS: One hundred and eighteen patients comprising a total of 215 lesions were reviewed. Amongst this cohort, 92 PIRADS 3 lesions were identified and biopsied. The mean age of patients in this cohort was 62.6 years. Median prostate specific antigen (PSA) was 6.5 ng/ml and median prostate size was 78.4 ml. Eightysix (93.5%) of biopsied PIRADS 3 lesions were benign and 6 (6.5%) lesions were found to be malignant. Of these 6 malignant lesions, 4 (66%) were Gleason score 6 (3 + 3) and 2 (33%) were Gleason score 7 (3 + 4). Of the 86 non-malignant lesions, 1 (1.2%) represented high-grade prostate intraepithelial neoplasia and 2 (2.4%) represented atypical small acinar proliferation. PIRADS 3 lesions within the peripheral zone were more likely to be associated with malignant disease compared with lesions identified within the transition zone (10.8 vs. 3.8%). Those with malignant disease had a higher median PSA (8.1 vs. 6.4 ng/ml) and higher median PSA density (0.12 vs. 0.08) than those without malignant disease. Those with benign pathology had a higher prevalence of inflammation (31.4 vs. 16.7%). As per Epstein's criteria, 4 (4.3%) of the biopsied lesions represented clinically significant disease. CONCLUSION: We have demonstrated in our series, that prostate lesions characterized on a 3T multiparametric MRI examination of the prostate as PIRADS 3, according to the current prevalent scoring systems, are associated with a low likelihood of the presence of clinically significant prostate cancer.

New systemic treatment options for metastatic renal-cell carcinoma in the era of targeted therapies.

Advances in understanding the biology and genetics of renal-cell carcinomas have led to the development of novel targeted therapies for the treatment of metastatic renal-cell cancer. Previously the systemic approaches were limited to cytokine therapies that were modest in their clinical benefits and at the expense of significant toxicities. Investigational treatments with allogeneic bone marrow transplantation were equally toxic and resulted in significant morbidity and mortality. The development of targeted therapy has revolutionized the treatment of metastatic renal-cell cancer with more meaningful outcomes. This review aims to provide a detailed discussion of the clinical benefits of targeted therapies such as sunitinib, sorafenib, temsirolimus, everolimus, bevacizumab, and some of the newer agents in clinical trial development. The efficacy of these compounds in terms of response, survival and clinical benefit are explored as well as their toxicities. The role of surgery in metastatic renal-cell carcinoma is reviewed in the context of cytoreductive therapy and resection of solitary and oligometastatic disease. Ongoing studies in the adjuvant setting following curative resection are also reviewed. The availability of targeted therapies has led to their rapid adoption as frontline therapy over traditional cytokine therapy, thus bringing more optimistic and hopeful therapeutic options in a condition where historically, systemic treatments have been relatively unsatisfactory and disappointing.