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Real-time Fluorescence Microscopy for Intraoperative Assessment of Prostate Biopsy Cores (FLASH) (FLASH)

23 september 2026 bijgewerkt door: Shanghai East Hospital

Fluorescence Microscope for Localized Assessment and Sparing of Histology in Prostate Cancer (FLASH): An International, Multicentre, Prospective Diagnostic Accuracy and Clinical Utility Study With Blinded Index-Test and Reference-Standard Readers

Current prostate cancer diagnosis relies on MRI-targeted biopsy combined with a 12-core systematic biopsy. The systematic component is a major driver of overdiagnosis of insignificant cancer and biopsy-related morbidity, and conventional pathology takes 1-2 weeks, causing significant patient anxiety. The EndoScell system is a handheld, real-time fluorescence microscope that can display the microscopic structure of a fresh biopsy core within minutes, without damaging the tissue.

In this study, every biopsy core from men undergoing standard combined (targeted plus systematic) prostate biopsy will be scanned with this device immediately after removal, and the result will be compared with the final conventional pathology report of the very same core. The device result will not be used to guide any patient care. The study will measure how accurate the device is and simulate how many systematic biopsies could safely be avoided in the future if a positive device reading were used to stop further sampling.

Studie Overzicht

Gedetailleerde beschrijving

FLASH is an investigator-initiated, international, multicentre, prospective diagnostic-accuracy and clinical-utility study with a within-patient paired design, conducted and reported in accordance with STARD 2015. Biopsy-naïve men with suspected prostate cancer (serum PSA >4 ng/mL and/or abnormal digital rectal examination) and at least one MRI-visible lesion (PI-RADS v2.1 score 3-5) will undergo standard-of-care combined targeted and systematic prostate biopsy.

Immediately after extraction, every core will undergo ex vivo dual staining (fluorescein sodium for 30 seconds followed by methylene blue for 30 seconds) and contact-mode scanning with the EndoScell real-time fluorescence microscope (model MES-1000P), completed within 5 minutes per core by certified technicians. Each core is assigned to a three-tier category (0 = negative/suspected low-grade; 1 = suspected clinically significant prostate cancer; 2 = equivocal). The interval from core extraction to formalin fixation will not exceed 15 minutes. All cores then undergo routine formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) histopathology with haematoxylin and eosin staining, with immunohistochemistry as clinically indicated, reported by senior uropathologists.

Bidirectional blinding is enforced throughout: technicians are blinded to all clinical data, MRI findings, and core origin; device results are withheld from the treating team and never enter the medical record; uropathologists are blinded to all device data; the statistician works with coded variables until database lock. Central pathology review is performed for discordant and equivocal cases.

The primary outcome is patient-level diagnostic accuracy (sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values with exact 95% confidence intervals) of the device for clinically significant prostate cancer (ISUP grade group >=2) against FFPE histopathology in the intention-to-diagnose population. Secondary outcomes include core-level concordance with cluster adjustment, inter-reader reproducibility, tissue-integrity assessment, operational metrics, and a prespecified decision-analytic simulation of a "Positive-then-Stop" biopsy-sparing pathway, which is hypothesis-generating and does not alter patient care. The accuracy and utility estimates are intended to inform the design of a future randomised de-implementation trial.

Studietype

Observationeel

Inschrijving (Geschat)

450

Contacten en locaties

In dit gedeelte vindt u de contactgegevens van degenen die het onderzoek uitvoeren en informatie over waar dit onderzoek wordt uitgevoerd.

Studiecontact

Studie Contact Back-up

Deelname Criteria

Onderzoekers zoeken naar mensen die aan een bepaalde beschrijving voldoen, de zogenaamde geschiktheidscriteria. Enkele voorbeelden van deze criteria zijn iemands algemene gezondheidstoestand of eerdere behandelingen.

Geschiktheidscriteria

Leeftijden die in aanmerking komen voor studie

40 jaar en ouder (Volwassen, Oudere volwassene)

Accepteert gezonde vrijwilligers

Nee

Geslachten die in aanmerking komen voor studie

Mannelijk

Bemonsteringsmethode

Kanssteekproef

Studie Bevolking

patients who suspected to have prostate cancer

Beschrijving

Inclusion Criteria:

  1. Age >= 40 years;
  2. Serum total PSA > 4.0 ng/mL and/or abnormal digital rectal examination;
  3. Biopsy-naïve;
  4. Pre-biopsy 3.0-T multiparametric MRI demonstrating at least one suspicious lesion (PI-RADS v2.1 score 3-5);
  5. Fit for transperineal or transrectal prostate biopsy under local, regional, or general anaesthesia;
  6. Written informed consent.

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Prior treatment for prostate cancer (surgery, radiotherapy, focal therapy, or androgen-deprivation therapy), or use of 5-alpha-reductase inhibitors within the preceding 6 months;
  2. Acute prostatitis or active urinary tract infection;
  3. Contraindications to MRI (e.g., incompatible implants, severe claustrophobia);
  4. Severe coagulation disorders or uncorrectable bleeding tendency;
  5. History of major anorectal surgery precluding safe insertion of the endorectal ultrasound probe (where transrectal guidance is used);
  6. Any other condition that, in the investigator's judgement, makes the participant unsuitable for the trial.

Studie plan

Dit gedeelte bevat details van het studieplan, inclusief hoe de studie is opgezet en wat de studie meet.

Hoe is de studie opgezet?

Ontwerpdetails

  • Observatiemodellen: COHORT
  • Tijdsperspectieven: PROSPECTIVE

Cohorten en interventies

Groep / Cohort
Interventie / Behandeling
Biopsy-naïve men with suspected prostate cancer

Men undergoing standard-of-care combined targeted plus systematic prostate biopsy; every core undergoes ex vivo EndoScell fluorescence microscopy (index test) followed by FFPE histopathology (reference standard). Device results are not used for patient care.

Fresh biopsy cores are stained with fluorescein sodium (30 s) and methylene blue (30 s), scanned in contact mode within 5 minutes per core, and categorised on a three-tier scale; the tissue then proceeds to routine FFPE histopathology unchanged. The test is performed on excised tissue only and does not influence clinical management.

Wat meet het onderzoek?

Primaire uitkomstmaten

Uitkomstmaat
Maatregel Beschrijving
Tijdsspanne
Patient-level sensitivity of the EndoScell system for clinically significant prostate cancer
Tijdsspanne: Index test on Day 0; reference standard completed Day 7-14

Proportion of reference-positive participants (any core with ISUP grade group >=2 on FFPE histopathology) with at least one core read as Category 1 (suspected clinically significant prostate cancer) on the index test; reported with exact (Clopper-Pearson) 95% confidence interval in the intention-to-diagnose population.

Index test on Day 0; reference standard completed Day 7-14
Patient-level negative predictive value (NPV) of the EndoScell system
Tijdsspanne: Index test on Day 0; reference standard completed Day 7-14

Proportion of participants with no Category 1 core who are reference-negative; exact 95% CI.

Index test on Day 0; reference standard completed Day 7-14
Patient-level positive predictive value (PPV) of the EndoScell system
Tijdsspanne: Index test on Day 0; reference standard completed Day 7-14

Proportion of participants with at least one Category 1 core who are reference-positive (ISUP grade group >=2 on FFPE); exact 95% CI.

Index test on Day 0; reference standard completed Day 7-14
Patient-level specificity of the EndoScell system for clinically significant prostate cancer
Tijdsspanne: Index test on Day 0; reference standard completed Day 7-14

Proportion of reference-negative participants with no core read as Category 1; equivocal (Category 2) readings are grouped with test-negative in the primary analysis, with worst-case/best-case/exclusion sensitivity analyses prespecified; exact 95% CI.

Index test on Day 0; reference standard completed Day 7-14

Secundaire uitkomstmaten

Uitkomstmaat
Maatregel Beschrijving
Tijdsspanne
Core-level diagnostic concordance
Tijdsspanne: Index test on Day 0; reference standard completed Day 7-14

Per-core sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV of the index test against FFPE histopathology, overall and stratified by core origin (targeted vs systematic), with cluster-robust 95% CIs from a generalised estimating equation (logit link, exchangeable correlation) accounting for within-patient clustering.

Index test on Day 0; reference standard completed Day 7-14
Biopsy-sparing rate of the simulated "Positive-then-Stop" pathway
Tijdsspanne: Simulation performed after database lock (estimated December 2028)

Proportion of participants in whom systematic biopsy would have been omitted (any targeted core read as Category 1), and the corresponding proportion of systematic cores avoided; prespecified deterministic simulation, exact 95% CIs. Hypothesis-generating; does not alter patient care.

Simulation performed after database lock (estimated December 2028)
Overdiagnosis reduction in the simulated pathway
Tijdsspanne: Simulation performed after database lock (estimated December 2028)

Number and proportion of ISUP grade group 1 diagnoses that would have been averted by omitting systematic biopsy after a positive intraoperative reading; exact 95% CI.

Simulation performed after database lock (estimated December 2028)
Clinically significant prostate cancer miss rate in the simulated pathway
Tijdsspanne: Simulation performed after database lock (estimated December 2028)

Number and proportion of reference-positive participants who would have been missed under the simulated pathway (targeted cores negative on both index test and FFPE, with csPCa found only in systematic cores); exact 95% CI.

Simulation performed after database lock (estimated December 2028)
Net benefit of the simulated pathway (decision-curve analysis)
Tijdsspanne: Simulation performed after database lock (estimated December 2028)

Decision-curve analysis with patient-level bootstrap (1000 resamples) comparing three strategies (combined biopsy for all; targeted biopsy alone; Positive-then-Stop) across threshold probabilities.

Simulation performed after database lock (estimated December 2028)
Inter-reader agreement of index-test readings
Tijdsspanne: Video re-reading after completion of enrolment (estimated 2028)

Cohen's kappa (three-tier scale and dichotomised Category 1 vs 0/2) and percent agreement between two blinded technicians re-interpreting a random 20% subset of archived scan videos (~900-1200 cores).

Video re-reading after completion of enrolment (estimated 2028)
Tissue-integrity (tissue-compromise) rate
Tijdsspanne: Day 7-14 (pathology reporting)

Proportion of cores flagged by uropathologists as degraded, unreadable, or inadequate for definitive H&E/IHC evaluation attributable to the staining/scanning procedure; one-sided upper 95% confidence bound compared against the 1% acceptability benchmark.

Day 7-14 (pathology reporting)
Operational performance of the index test
Tijdsspanne: Day 0

Per-core scanning time, extraction-to-fixation interval, equivocal (Category 2) rate, and device/scan failure rate, summarised descriptively by centre and calendar quarter.

Day 0

Medewerkers en onderzoekers

Hier vindt u mensen en organisaties die betrokken zijn bij dit onderzoek.

Onderzoekers

  • Studie stoel: haifeng wang, Changhai Hospital

Studie record data

Deze datums volgen de voortgang van het onderzoeksdossier en de samenvatting van de ingediende resultaten bij ClinicalTrials.gov. Studieverslagen en gerapporteerde resultaten worden beoordeeld door de National Library of Medicine (NLM) om er zeker van te zijn dat ze voldoen aan specifieke kwaliteitscontrolenormen voordat ze op de openbare website worden geplaatst.

Bestudeer belangrijke data

Studie start (Geschat)

1 december 2026

Primaire voltooiing (Geschat)

1 december 2028

Studie voltooiing (Geschat)

1 januari 2029

Studieregistratiedata

Eerst ingediend

23 september 2026

Eerst ingediend dat voldeed aan de QC-criteria

23 september 2026

Eerst geplaatst (Werkelijk)

29 september 2026

Updates van studierecords

Laatste update geplaatst (Werkelijk)

29 september 2026

Laatste update ingediend die voldeed aan QC-criteria

23 september 2026

Laatst geverifieerd

1 september 2026

Meer informatie

Termen gerelateerd aan deze studie

Plan Individuele Deelnemersgegevens (IPD)

Bent u van plan om gegevens van individuele deelnemers (IPD) te delen?

JA

Beschrijving IPD-plan

De-identified participant-level data and the signed statistical analysis plan will be made available on reasonable request to the corresponding author, subject to a methodologically sound proposal and a signed data-access agreement.

IPD-tijdsbestek voor delen

Beginning 12 months after publication of the primary results, for a period of 5 years.

IPD-toegangscriteria voor delen

Proposals will be reviewed by the Trial Steering Committee; access requires approval and a data-access agreement.

IPD delen Ondersteunend informatietype

  • LEERPROTOCOOL
  • SAP

Informatie over medicijnen en apparaten, studiedocumenten

Bestudeert een door de Amerikaanse FDA gereguleerd geneesmiddel

Nee

Bestudeert een door de Amerikaanse FDA gereguleerd apparaatproduct

Nee

Deze informatie is zonder wijzigingen rechtstreeks van de website clinicaltrials.gov gehaald. Als u verzoeken heeft om uw onderzoeksgegevens te wijzigen, te verwijderen of bij te werken, neem dan contact op met register@clinicaltrials.gov. Zodra er een wijziging wordt doorgevoerd op clinicaltrials.gov, wordt deze ook automatisch bijgewerkt op onze website .

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