A systematic review and meta-analysis of MRI based risk calculators in predicting prostate cancer

Ciarán Courtney O’Toole, University of Limerick

Co-authors: Nancy Fosua Boakye, University of Limerick; Ailish Hannigan, University of Limerick; Amirhossein Jalali, University of Limerick

Abstract: Prostate cancer (PCa) remains one of the most commonly diagnosed malignancies in men, necessitating the continuous refinement of diagnostic strategies to improve accuracy and reduce unnecessary interventions. This study synthesises evidence on the efficacy of MRI-based risk calculators (RCs) for PCa detection, comparing their performance with traditional clinical RCs. A systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted following PRISMA 2020 guidelines. The analysis included studies that assessed the discriminatory ability of MRI-based RCs using the Area Under the Curve (AUC) metric. The findings suggest that MRI-based RCs offer enhanced discrimination in predicting clinically significant PCa (csPCa) compared to traditional approaches, underscoring the potential of these tools to optimise patient outcomes and resource allocation in clinical practice.