Published: 21 December 2022
A revolutionary device funded by the NIHR can help to reduce the risk of infection during prostate cancer diagnosis, according to new research. The CamPROBE device will also help to save time and money.
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the UK. One in eight men will have the disease during their lifetime. The new device, the Cambridge Prostate Biopsy Device or CamPROBE, is designed to improve the way prostate cancer is diagnosed.
New research published in the Journal of Clinical Urology shows that CamPROBE has several benefits compared to the usual methods of diagnosing the disease.
Usually men with prostate cancer are diagnosed using a sample of tissue that is taken using a probe inserted into the rectum. The biopsy needle passes through the bowel wall to reach the prostate, which is painful and requires a general anaesthetic. The process can also lead to urinary infections and sometimes more severe infections such as sepsis.
CamPROBE is designed to take the biopsy sample through the skin under the scrotum, known as the perineum, reducing the risk of infection. Another benefit is that the procedure can be performed with local anaesthetic. It is also expected to cost less than half the cost of existing devices.
Professor Vincent Gnanapragasam, senior member of the research team at the University of Cambridge said: "Procedure times were short and only low amounts of local anaesthetic were required, yet low pain scores were reported by patients.
“More than 85% of patients said they would recommend the CamPROBE procedure to someone else as a method of having a prostate biopsy done.”
CamPROBE is supported by the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre and the NIHR Cambridge Clinical Research Facility, and also received funding from NIHR's i4i programme.