Learning Curve of Digital Rectal Examination for Prostate Cancer Among Internship

Learning Curve of Digital Rectal Examination for Prostate Cancer Among Internship

The investigators conduct this prospective study to investigate the learning curve of digital rectal examination (DRE) for prostate cancer among internship. The investigators want to know how many DRE are usually needed for internship to be performed in urological practice to obtain a stable DRE accuracy.

Digital rectal examination (DRE) is a basic physical examination in routine practice in Urology. The DRE is a very important daily practice for screen prostate cancer, and each internship in Urology is required to perform this for patients suspected of prostate cancer or benign prostate hyperplasia. However, how many DRE are usually needed for a internship to perform so as to obtain a stable accuracy in daily practice is currently unknown. The investigators thus conduct this prospective trial to investigate the learning curve of DRE among internship.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Internship just graduate from the medical school, and agree to attend the study.
• Internship have less than 5 DREs of prostate cancer.
• Patients of any age who are included for prostate biopsy are eligible, the indications for prostate biopsy are as follows: PSA>4ng/ml, fPSA/tPSA<0.16, with suspected palpable nodes in the prostate by DRE of attending doctor, suspected mass in prostate detected by ultrasound examination, magnetic resonance imaging, or computed tomography.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Internship who are not willing to attend the study.
• Internship stop doing DRE for continuously 3 months after entering the study.