Quirónsalud Tenerife now has the most advanced diagnostics for prostate cancer

Although prostate cancer is the most common in men; its 5-year survival rate is close to 100% if diagnosed and treated early. With the aim of improving its diagnostic capacity and considerably increasing the percentage of lesions that are detected incipiently, Hospital Quirónsalud Tenerife has acquired a high-precision micro-ultrasound machine, which is unique in the Canary Islands.

The head of Urology for the Quirónsalud hospitals in Tenerife, Dr. Guillermo Conde, explains that this technique can be performed in consultation and “represents a fundamental advance in the identification of millimetre-sized prostate tumours, as it has a much higher resolution than conventional ultrasounds.”

In addition, this new modern technology offers the team of specialists in the Urology department the possibility of working by merging their images with those of the magnetic resonance scan, providing much greater precision, which is key to determining the exact location of the tumour and its size.

“Incorporating both precision biopsy techniques, i.e. the one performed by fusing images as well as the micro-ultrasound one, allows us to make a huge qualitative leap in the early diagnosis of this type of tumour. They are the most advanced techniques, which, in addition, can be combined”, says Dr. Conde who explains that this technology is especially useful for patients with high levels of PSA and previous negative transrectal biopsies; as well as in people with claustrophobia or allergies to radiological contrasts used in magnetic resonance imaging.

Dr. Conde continued that, after identifying suspicious signs in the most common tests, such as PSA and digital rectal examination, it is necessary to confirm the diagnosis with a biopsy. “The current recommendation is to do an MRI before the biopsy. The micro-ultrasound machine makes it possible to complement the information from this test and even improve it by increasing the tumour detection rate by visualizing lesions that may go unnoticed”, he adds.

Conventional biopsies can be very nonspecific and miss very small millimetre long lesions, which, however, do not escape the micro-ultrasound scan. This offers the option of performing targeted and selective transperineal biopsies in suspicious areas, and also reaches areas of the prostate not accessible with other techniques. This considerably increases the precision in the diagnosis, increases the rate of tumour detection, and reduces the probability of having to repeat the biopsy.

Dr. Conde concludes that to all this knowledge and all this technology must be added a greater involvement by the population, and for this, from his point of view, it is essential to make men aware of the importance of going to the urologist for a prostate test from the age of 45.