Patient-reported outcome measures for pain and tolerability of transperineal prostate biopsy under local anaesthesia using the PrecisionPoint™ transperineal access system: A prospective study for a real-world patient experience.

Purpose: Prostate biopsy remains the key step in prostate cancer detection. In recent years, the PrecisionPoint™ Transperineal Access System (PPTAS) has been described as an effective and safe method for performing transperineal biopsy under local anaesthesia (LA). The authors report on the real-world experience of the procedure.

Materials and methods: Following introduction and familiarity with the PPTAS biopsy method, patients undergoing prostate biopsy for suspected prostate cancer were provided with validated questionnaires to rate their pain and discomfort following the procedure. The experience of LA administration and the experience of the biopsies were rated separately and prospectively. In addition, the number of cores, maximum core length (MCL), detection rate, and complication rate were retrospectively collected.

Results: One hundred three patients were recruited to the study, and a final number of 86 completed patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) forms were analysed. The procedure was described as tolerable by 97.7%, causing discomfort in 70.9%-88.4%. The grade of pain or discomfort in 73.3%-87.2% was <4 on the pain scale, with only 5.8%-9.3% describing a pain grade >5 on the pain scale. The number of cores, MCL, detection rate, and complication rate were within accepted rates.

Conclusions: In a real-world setting, the procedure showed satisfactory PROMs with good patient tolerability and a low grade of pain. Also, it showed a good biopsy quality, detection rate, and complications rate, meaning PPTAS should be considered by centers seeking to streamline the prostate cancer detection pathway for patients.