• Division of Cancer Prevention, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA.

OBJECTIVE: To examine mortality and morbidity after prostate biopsy in the intervention arm of the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian Cancer Screening (PLCO) trial.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Abstractors from the PLCO trial recorded the types and dates of diagnostic follow-up procedures after positive screens and documented the types and dates of resultant complications. Cancers and deaths among the participants were tracked. The mortality rate in the 120-day period after prostate biopsy was compared with a control rate of deaths in the 120-day period after a negative screen in men without biopsy. Multivariate analysis was performed to control for potential confounders, including age, comorbidities and smoking. Rates of any complication, infectious and non-infectious complications were computed among men with a negative biopsy. Multivariate analysis was used to examine the risk factors for complications.

RESULTS: Of the 37,345 men enrolled in the PLCO trial (intervention arm), 4861 had at least one biopsy after a positive screen and 28,661 had a negative screen and no biopsy. The 120-day mortality rate after biopsy was 0.95 (per 1000), compared with the control group rate of 1.8; the multivariate relative risk was 0.49 (95% CI: 0.2-1.1). Among 3706 negative biopsies, the rates (per 1000) of any complication, infectious and non-infections complications were 20.2, 7.8 and 13.0, respectively. A history of prostate enlargement or inflammation was significantly associated with higher rates of both infectious (odds ratio [OR] = 3.7) and non-infectious (OR = 2.2) complications. Black race was associated with a higher infectious complications rate (OR = 7.1) and repeat biopsy was associated with lower rates of non-infectious complications (OR = 0.3).

CONCLUSION: Mortality rates were not found to be higher after prostate biopsy in the PLCO trial and complications were relatively infrequent, with several risk factors identified.