AI Test Changes Prostate Cancer Decisions

A prospective study examined whether biomarker results could refine treatment selection

October 12, 2026
4 min

The Pathologist

At a Glance

Category	Detail
Condition	Intermediate-risk prostate cancer treated with radiotherapy
Key Mechanisms	The multi-modal AI test combines clinical factors with information from a digitized tumor biopsy slide. It estimates 10-year distant-metastasis risk and assesses whether adding four to six months of short-term androgen deprivation therapy (ST-ADT) to radiotherapy is likely to provide benefit.
Target Population	Men with intermediate-risk prostate cancer receiving radiotherapy in the Australian ASTuTE implementation study
Care Setting	Prospective, multicenter implementation study across Australian centers; clinicians and patients considered test results during radiotherapy treatment planning.

Key Highlights

The prospective study included 786 patients and assessed whether test results changed shared recommendations about ST-ADT.
Of 230 patients initially recommended ST-ADT, 176 decided against treatment after testing.
Testing supported newly recommending ST-ADT for 21 patients who had not initially planned to receive it.
Planned ST-ADT use fell by a net 20.7% across the cohort.
The interim findings concern treatment decisions; longer-term cancer-control and quality-of-life outcomes have not yet been reported.

Guideline-Based Recommendations

Diagnosis

The test uses clinical factors and a digitized hematoxylin-and-eosin-stained biopsy slide containing the tumor core with the highest Gleason grade used by the local pathologist.
A certified pathologist reviews the digital image for suitability before analysis.

Management

The test provides prognostic and predictive information for shared decisions about adding four to six months of ST-ADT to radiotherapy.
The study reports changes in treatment recommendations, not evidence that test-guided decisions improve patient outcomes.

Monitoring & Follow-up

Longer-term outcomes, including quality of life and disease control, are to be evaluated through registry linkage after a median follow-up of five years.
Further assessment is needed of analytical reproducibility, slide-quality requirements, performance across patient groups, and integration with routine digital pathology workflows.

Risks

ST-ADT lowers testosterone and can cause sexual dysfunction, hot flashes, persistent fatigue, osteoporosis, metabolic changes, cardiovascular complications, and mood disorders. Add a supporting reference for these adverse effects.
The interim findings do not establish whether avoiding ST-ADT in biomarker-negative patients maintains cancer control or whether adding it in biomarker-positive patients reduces recurrence or mortality.

Patient & Prescribing Data

The ASTuTE study included 786 men receiving radiotherapy for intermediate-risk prostate cancer.

Among 230 patients initially recommended ST-ADT, 176 decided against it after testing; 21 patients not initially planned for ST-ADT were newly recommended treatment. Planned use decreased by a net 20.7%.

Clinical Best Practices

The source distinguishes prognostic information, which estimates the likelihood of a future outcome, from predictive information, which estimates the likelihood of benefit from a specific treatment.
The study evaluated changes in clinician-patient treatment decisions, not improved clinical outcomes.
The source identifies prostate-specific antigen level, tumor stage, Gleason score, and the proportion of biopsy cores containing cancer as conventional risk-assessment factors.