Extended biopsy protocol decreases prostate cancer incidence and risk of aggressive disease on repeated biopsies compared with initial standard procedure.

Objectives: To compare prostate cancer detection rates in repeated biopsy depending on the number of cores at initial biopsy. Methods: Out of 3,000 consecutive patients, 534 underwent repeat extended biopsies. At first procedure, 345 patients had undergone standard biopsies (10–15 cores; SBx) whereas 189 other patients had already had a 21-core extended protocol (ExtBx). Clinicobiological and pathological parameters were compared between 2 groups. Results: The prostate cancer detection rate was significantly higher in the SBx group (37%) compared with the ExtBx group (16.8%, p Conclusions: A full evaluation of all prostate zones using ExtBx seems to be necessary to decrease the risk of undetected prostate cancer on repeated biopsies. For patients who had at their first biopsy an ExtBx, the risk of prostate cancer on the repeated biopsies and the risk of aggressive cancer were lower compared to standard biopsies.