Comparative Assessment of Different Ultrasound Technologies in the Detection of Prostate Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Abstract

The present study aimed to assess the diagnostic test accuracy of different ultrasound scanning technologies in the detection of prostate cancer. A systematic search was conducted using the Cochrane Guidelines for Screening and Diagnostic Tests. We performed a systematic search in the international databases PubMed, Medline, Ovid, Embase and Cochrane Library. Searches were designed to find all studies that evaluated Micro-US, mpUS, SWE and CEUS as the main detection modalities for prostate cancer. This study was registered with Research Registry of systematic review and meta-analysis. The QUADAS-2 tool was utilized to perform quality assessment and bias analysis. The literature search generated 1376 studies. Of these, 320 studies were screened for eligibility, with 1056 studies being excluded. Overall, 26 studies with a total of 6370 patients met the inclusion criteria. The pooled sensitivity for grayscale, CEUS, SWE, Micro-US and mpUS modalities were 0.66 (95% CI 0.54–0.73) 0.73 (95% CI 0.58–0.88), 0.82 (95% CI 0.75–0.90), 0.85 (95% CI 0.76–0.94) and 0.87 (95% CI 0.71–1.03), respectively. Moreover, the pooled specificity for grayscale, CEUS, SWE, Micro-US and mpUS modalities were 0.56 (95% CI 0.21–0.90), 0.78 (95% CI 0.67–0.88), 0.76 (95% CI 0.65–0.88), 0.43 (95% CI 0.28–0.59) and 0.68 (95% CI 0.54–0.81), respectively. In terms of sensitivity, substantial heterogeneity between studies was detected (I2 = 72%, p = 0.000 < 0.05). In relation to specificity, extreme heterogeneity was detected (I2 = 93%, p = 0.000 < 0.05). Some studies proved that advanced ultrasound modalities such as mpUS, Micro-US, shear-wave elastography, contrast enhanced and micro-ultrasound are promising methods for the detection of prostate cancer.

The Performance of Different Parametric Ultrasounds in Prostate Cancer Diagnosis: Correlation with Radical Prostatectomy Specimens

“…This systematic review will study the performance of these modalities in prostate cancer detection. Two different studies completed a systematic review of ultrasound multiple parametric performance in detecting prostate cancer [22,23]. Postema et al [22] examined how ultrasound can be utilized to detect prostate cancer and how these methods can be combined to improve detection accuracy, known as multiparametric ultrasound [mpUS].…”

“…Only one research database was used in their study, and the reference standards were biopsy and radical prostatectomy. The Alghamdi et al [23] study was recently published; they analyzed the accuracy of various ultrasound parameters in PCa detection. They included CEUS, micro-ultrasound, and both elastography techniques associated with biopsy and radical prostatectomy as the reference standard.…”