Variation in technique, interpretation
But the quality of care when it comes to the diagnosis of prostate cancer is not equal everywhere, said Gerald Andriole, MD, from the Washington School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri.
“When you get an MRI in a center that doesn’t do a lot of prostate cancer testing, you may not have the best software and you may have a radiologist who is not that experienced,” he told Medscape Medical News. Specialized cancer centers of excellence tend to do a great job finding prostate cancer, “but other centers have high significant-miss rates or high overcall rates.”
“The elephant in the room remains the considerable variation in technique and interobserver interpretation of prostate mpMRI,” write Steven Monda, MD, and Marc Dall’Era, MD, both from UC Davis Health in Sacramento, California, in an editorial that accompanies the new PROMIS analysis.
“These problems must be addressed and remedied in each institution before relying on results from PROMIS to drive changes in clinical practice,” they add.
Norris, Andriole, Monda, and Dall’Era have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.
This article first appeared on Medscape.com.