andrea.masperi@ieo.it

To compare the procedure time and the percentage of positive samples per prostate cancer (PC) patient between manual and robotic in-bore MR guided prostate biopsy (MR-PB).

All consecutive in-bore MR-PB performed in our Institution between January 2015 and March 2018 using either a manual or robotic device were retrospectively analyzed and grouped as follows: Group 1, the first 30 consecutive MR-PBs using a manual device (n=30); Group 2, the last 30 MR-PBs performed using the manual device after 2 years of experience (n=30); Group 3, the first 27 biopsies using a robotic device (n=27). The same 1.5 T MRI scanner was used for all MR-PBs. For each of the three groups, we calculated the overall procedure time, time to first biopsy and time for every additional sample, as well as the percentage of positive cores in patients who were diagnosed with PC.

Average overall procedure time was 57.5min (Interquartile range -IQR-: 47-63.5min; Group 1), 37.7min (IQR:31-43min; Group 2) and 31.1min (IQR:27.3-35min; Group 3); average time to first biopsy was respectively 29.4min, 22.5min and 26.5min; average time for every additional sample was 9.5min, 4.9min and 3.8min. 12 patients were positive for PC in Group 1 (average core involvement 44.6%), 19 in Group 2 (average core involvement 52.3%) and 16 in Group 3 (average core involvement 52.1%), with a percentage of positive cores per PC patient of 76.31%, 73.7% and 83.8%, respectively.

MR-PB using a robotic device decreased procedure time and increased the percentage of positive cores per PC patient. This has the potential to improve patient comfort as well as PC characterization in clinical practice.

Robotic devices for in-bore MR guided prostate biopsy decrease the procedure time and increase accuracy of samples, thus facilitating its application in clinical routine.