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

"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**."