Combining magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, technology with a traditional ultrasound prostate exam has resulted in a three-dimensional map of the prostate that allows doctors to view growths that were previously undetectable. Urologic oncologist J. Kellogg Parsons of the University of California, San Diego Health System was the first to use the technology in the San Diego region.

"We just had a patient – he had several prostate biopsies using the ultrasound machine and we never detected the cancer and yet his PSA blood level kept going up, which was very concerning and anxiety-provoking for him and then the MRI technology became available to us, we did the MRI-guided prostate biopsy and in fact we diagnosed a fairly aggressive prostate cancer at a time where it is completely curable and we were only able to do that because of the MRI."