Automatic calibration of quantitative imaging biomarkers for increased precision in prostate cancer detection

前列腺癌是男性中**最常见的癌症**，影响到六分之一的男性。2013年，英国有超过47,000名男性被诊断出患有前列腺癌，其中90%的早期发现的疾病不需要任何干预。目前，前列腺癌诊断首次可以使用**先进的磁共振成像(MRI)方法**进行本地化。这使得放射科医生可以在送患者进行活检之前首先开始使用MRI，从而降低了医疗成本。然而，使用这些专门的MRI方法并不是100%准确，**许多患者需要不必要的活检**。此外，在目前的状态下，患者仍有被诊断为时已晚的风险。因此，需要**使用先进的MRI方法提高患者诊断的一致性**，以便NHS使用的医疗指南可以开始倡导使用这种方法随着时间的推移重新评估疾病，因为即使部分切除前列腺也会导致大多数患者生活质量的毁灭性下降。在这里，我们概述了一种用于标准化所谓的扩散成像的自动校准软件的开发，用于检测前列腺癌早期变化的**最重要的工具**。使用这种软件的可行性研究将与内部开发一种专门设计的新型设备同时进行，该设备专门设计用于与患者一起进行扫描，以保证**测量参数的重复性**在同一扫描仪上随时间推移或在不同扫描仪之间进行互换比较。我们希望这种被称为“在影像校准设备内”(WICADs)的设备将彻底改变目前放射学的实践方式，并帮助建立**广泛部署先进的MRI技术**，以实现自动化或辅助诊断，从而改善针对单个患者的治疗实施。选择前列腺癌作为我们产品的第一个实施是非常重要的，因为所谓的精准医学方法已经在使用，其目的是只有在真正必要的时候才对患者进行手术，以提高**他们的生活质量**。“

"Prostate cancer is the **most common cancer** in men affecting 1/6 of all men. In 2013, over **47,000 men** were diagnosed with prostate cancer in the UK, with 90% of early detected disease not requiring any intervention. Currently, prostate cancer diagnostics can be localised, for the first time, using **advanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) methods**. This has enabled radiologists to start using MRI first before sending the patients to get a biopsy, therefore reducing healthcare costs. Yet the use of these specialised MRI methods is not accurate at 100% and **many patients need unnecessary biopsies**. In addition, there is a remaining risk for patients to be diagnosed too late at this current state.Therefore, there is an unmet need to **improve the consistency of diagnosis of patients using advanced MRI methods**, so that the medical guidelines used by the NHS, which currently promote active surveillance of such cases, could start advocating for such methods to be used to reassess disease over time, as even partial removal of the prostate is associated with devastating decrease in quality of life for most patients.Herein, we outline development of an automatic calibration software for standardisation of so-called diffusion imaging, the **most important tool** used for detection of early changes in prostate cancer. A feasibility study for the use of such a software will be undertaken concurrently with the in-house development of a new type of device specifically designed to be scanned together with the patient to guarantee **reproducibility of measured parameters** using MRI on the same scanner over time or interchangeably compared between scanners. We hope that such devices, dubbed ""Within Image Calibration Devices"" (WICADs), will completely transform the way radiology is currently practiced and help establish **widespread deployment of advanced MRI techniques** towards automated or assisted diagnosis leading to improved treatment implementation on an individual patient basis. The choice of prostate cancer as a first implementation of our product is very important as a so-called precision medicine approach is already in use, which aims at operating on patients only when truly necessary, in order to improve **their quality of life**."