3.0T MRI Technology at QMG Transforms Prostate Cancer Screening

September 11, 2020

Though most may think of Mag­net­ic Res­o­nance Imag­ing, or MRI, as a tool to diag­nose a bro­ken bone or oth­er ortho­pe­dic injuries, the tech­nol­o­gy has trans­formed screen­ing for prostate can­cer in recent years.

In 2019, Quin­cy Med­ical Group (QMG) announced the addi­tion of a 3.0T MRI machine, the SIGNA™ Pio­neer from GE Health­care, which cre­ates the high­est-qual­i­ty images cur­rent­ly avail­able and decreas­es scan time for patients. For patients under­go­ing prostate can­cer screen­ing, the addi­tion of the 3.0T MRI pro­vides a much less inva­sive and more com­fort­able experience.

QMG Urol­o­gist Dr. Daniel Schnei­der said hav­ing this tech­nol­o­gy in Quin­cy pro­vides local patients with advanced tech­nol­o­gy for iden­ti­fy­ing and diag­nos­ing prostate cancer.

“Prostate MRI with the 3Tesla mag­net has rev­o­lu­tion­ized the diag­no­sis and man­age­ment of prostate can­cer,” Dr. Schnei­der explained. ​“It gives me the abil­i­ty to more accu­rate­ly deter­mine the pres­ence or absence of con­cern­ing areas in the prostate in a non-inva­sive fashion.”

Before the use of MRI of the prostate became avail­able, urol­o­gists had three tools avail­able to eval­u­ate /​diagnose prostate can­cer in men. These include the dig­i­tal rec­tal exam, the PSA test (a blood test that mea­sures the lev­el of prostate-spe­cif­ic anti­gen), and tran­srec­tal ultra­sound-guid­ed biopsy.

Before join­ing QMG in 2016, Dr. Schnei­der used the 3.0T MRI machine for patients dur­ing his res­i­den­cy pro­gram. He is thrilled to have this lev­el of tech­nol­o­gy avail­able locally.

“When I was at Mayo Clin­ic, we rou­tine­ly used this tool to help man­age patients with ele­vat­ed PSA and those patients with a his­to­ry of neg­a­tive biop­sy. I am so excit­ed to be able to offer this tech­nol­o­gy in Quin­cy, and it has giv­en me an indis­pens­able tool in the man­age­ment of prostate can­cer and ele­vat­ed PSA,” he said.

The QMG Urol­o­gy team includes Dr. Schnei­der, as well as Dr. Matthew Knud­son and Physi­cian Assis­tant Steven Rosen.

For more infor­ma­tion on prostate can­cer screen­ing and urol­o­gy ser­vices pro­vid­ed at QMG, call 217−222−6550, ext. 3421 or vis­it quin​cymed​group​.com.