A brand new Corewell Health study suggests that men who’ve longer prostatic urethras, the a part of the urethra that travels through the prostate, could also be at the next risk of experiencing moderate, often chronic urinary negative effects after receiving radiation for prostate cancer.

Thus far, researchers have struggled to find out any risk aspects that might make clear who might experience these kinds of negative effects ahead of time. But now, a straightforward MRI scan and a brand new metric to find out urethra length could change that.

Results, now published within the journal Academic Radiology, indicate that for each 1-centimeter increase in length of the prostatic urethra shown on the MRIs of 361 men, patients were about 60% more prone to experience issues reminiscent of having the urgency to urinate in addition to needing to urinate more often. Patients with a prostatic urethra length greater than 4.6 centimeters were nearly twice as prone to develop these symptoms.

We imagine this particular area is more exposed to the radiation doses patients receive, leading to direct inflammation. While chronic moderate urinary negative effects were more problematic in roughly 28% of participants after three years, the excellent news is lower than 3% of men experienced severe urinary negative effects.”

Kiran Nandalur, M.D., principal investigator of the study and radiologist at Corewell Health

In accordance with Dr. Nandalur, there are only a few known risk aspects for individuals who will experience negative effects after radiation and, in his study, aspects reminiscent of form of radiation or underlying medical conditions weren’t predictive of symptoms. He said this underscores how difficult it has been previously to evaluate risk aspects and highlights the necessity for novel and modern methods reminiscent of the usage of MRI technology in prostate cancer care.

Radiation therapy is some of the common treatments for prostate cancer and overall, it is taken into account very protected. Nevertheless, while radiation therapy is well tolerated by most patients, the portion of men who experience more negative effects often can find their quality of life impacted for periods of time.

“Our novel MRI metric may help patients know beforehand what their risk is in developing these symptoms and help them make higher and more informed decisions on a course of treatment that optimizes quality of life,” Nandalur said.

He added: “Doctors can also take a look at ways to raised spare the prostatic urethra area from radiation and potentially decrease the negative effects.”

Dr. Nandalur encourages patients to be proactive of their health and with their doctors.

“I highly recommend patients talk with their urologist or radiation oncologist about getting a prostate MRI before therapy,” he said. “It is strong in diagnosing and evaluating the extent of prostate cancer and may potentially help patients maintain a greater quality of life after undergoing treatment.”

Additional Corewell Health authors on the study include Joseph Lee, M.D., Ph.D.; Sirisha Nandalur, M.D.; Allison Hazy, M.D.; Sayf Al-Katif, M.D.; Hong Ye, Ph.D.; Nathan Kolderman, M.D.; Abhay Dhaliwal, M.D.; Daniel Krauss, M.D.; Thomas Quinn, M.D.; Kimberly Marvin; and Kyu Kim, B.S., with the Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine.