The puncture required to diagnose the disease is particularly painful: twelve needles are collected from the genitals just below the bladder through the anus through the anus. The decrease in the so-called biopsy can also cause complications, such as bleeding and inflammation.
In addition, it appears that in the old guideline in almost 60 percent of the cases no tumor was found. In other words, 23,000 of the 40,000 men picked.
“So many men you will no longer have to poke with those needles. And with the others you now puncture specifically,” says Professor Barentsz. Furthermore, with that ‘targeted injection’, only three needles are needed instead of twelve and the patient is told the final result within a few weeks instead of a few months.
15 million euros profit
According to Barentsz, another advantage of the new method is that only aggressive cancers can be seen on the MRI scan. Any non-aggressive types of cancer remain undiscovered, in contrast to the puncture directive.
“And we often encountered those types of cancers in the biopsies. But you don’t die and you don’t have to treat them.” In practice, Barentsz often saw that a treatment process was started. He thinks these unnecessary treatments will decrease with the new directive.
The new guideline is therefore expected to reduce healthcare costs. It is estimated that the costs will decrease by around € 375 per patient, or by around € 15 million in total.
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