Dr. Buffington on MRI Fusion for Prostate Cancer

Philip J. Buffington, MD, chief medical officer, The Urology Group, discusses MRI fusion-guided biopsy in patients with prostate cancer.

MRI fusion is done in many groups for the second biopsy for patients with prostate cancer, Buffington explains. A patient receiving MRI fusion is either on active surveillance with known prostate cancer or had a negative biopsy in the past but their prostate-specific antigen (PSA) is still rising.

The MRI is not so much for screening but helps target an area that may have been missed on a prior biopsy. A patient receives an MRI and if there is a concerning area the physicians take those images and fuse it with the images from the ultrasound to better target the area and biopsy it, says Buffington.