<strong><em><a href="http://www.southcountyurological.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/iStock_000000371304Small.jpg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-331" src="http://www.southcountyurological.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/iStock_000000371304Small-300x225.jpg" alt="iStock_000000371304Small" width="300" height="225" /></a>Targeted biopsy allows for more accuracy.</em></strong>

The new method fuses or combines magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with ‘real-time’ ultrasound.  ‘Real-time’ means the image is acquired as the exam is being performed. It’s not a stored image obtained days or weeks earlier.

‘Targeted biopsy’ allows the physician to zero in on suspicious areas as opposed to the traditional, prostate biopsy of random or ‘blind’ tissue sampling. The new method detects prostate cancer with greater accuracy.  It also helps to better stage prostate cancer when the disease is detected. This, in turn, can help prostate cancer patients who are considering active surveillance.

Physicians also believe that targeted biopsies will be particularly helpful to men who have persistently high PSA levels but who routinely test negative for prostate cancer.