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 **，影响所有男性的1/6。2013年，英国有超过 ** 47，000名男性 ** 被诊断患有前列腺癌，其中90%的早期发现疾病不需要任何干预。目前，前列腺癌的诊断可以定位，首次使用 ** 先进的磁共振成像（MRI）方法 **。这使得放射科医生在送病人去做活检之前可以先使用MRI，从而降低了医疗成本。然而，使用这些专门的MRI方法并不能100%准确，** 许多患者需要不必要的活检 **。此外，在目前的状态下，患者被诊断得太晚的风险仍然存在。因此，需要 ** 提高使用先进MRI方法对患者诊断的一致性 **，以便NHS使用的医疗指南（目前促进对此类病例的积极监测）可以开始倡导使用此类方法来随着时间的推移重新评估疾病，因为即使是部分切除前列腺也会导致大多数患者生活质量的严重下降。在此，我们概述了一种自动校准软件的开发，用于标准化所谓的扩散成像，这是用于检测前列腺癌早期变化的最重要的工具。将在内部开发专门设计用于与患者一起扫描的新型设备的同时，进行使用此类软件的可行性研究，以保证在同一扫描仪上使用MRI测量的参数 ** 随着时间的推移或在扫描仪之间进行互换比较的 ** 重现性。我们希望这种被称为“图像内校准设备”（WICADs）的设备将彻底改变放射学目前的实践方式，并帮助建立先进MRI技术的广泛部署，以实现自动化或辅助诊断，从而改善个体患者的治疗实施。选择前列腺癌作为我们产品的第一个实施方案非常重要，因为所谓的精准医疗方法已经在使用中，其目的是仅在真正必要时对患者进行手术，以改善 ** 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**."