Purpose: We describe secular trends in the use of imaging tests to stage prostate cancer, evaluate the impact of selected clinical factors on test use and compare physician actual use with recommendations in recently published literature.
Materials and methods: This retrospective nonrandomized analysis of a longitudinal disease registry enrolled 3,557 men diagnosed with prostate cancer between 1989 and 1997 at 29 urology practices throughout the United States. Using logistic regression the odds of performing pelvic computerized tomography (CT), pelvic magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), bone scan and excretory urogram were determined annually from 1989 to 1997. The frequency of test use was compared with recommendations from a recent urology literature synopsis.
Results: Use of MRI, CT, bone scan and excretory urogram was unchanged from 1989 to 1997. Compared to recent findings in the clinical literature bone scan, CT and MRI were used too frequently in patients at low risk for metastatic disease.
Conclusions: Urologists may be overusing bone scan, CT and MRI to stage tumors in patients with a low risk of advanced prostate cancer. Further studies are needed to assess the relationship between individual staging strategies and clinical outcomes.