NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. – Rutgers researchers are developing methods that can accurately assess the severity of prostate cancer by analyzing magnetic resonance images and spectra of a patient’s prostate gland. This may help physicians decide more confidently which patients need aggressive treatment and which are better served by “watchful waiting,” and could even postpone or eliminate invasive biopsies in patients with low-grade tumors.
In a presentation next month at the world’s premier medical image analysis conference, Rutgers biomedical engineers will report that they achieved over 90% accuracy in distinguishing low-grade from high-grade prostate cancers by running computer analyses of the images and spectra made on 19 patients in an early research study.
“The breakthrough we’ve had in the last few months is that we see image signatures that distinguish aggressive cancers from less aggressive ones,” said Anant Madabhushi, associate professor of biomedical engineering at Rutgers and a member of The Cancer Institute of New Jersey (CINJ).
These studies build on earlier research at Rutgers and elsewhere to identify prostate cancer using powerful, high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology.
“Now we’re getting beyond merely identifying whether a person has cancer or not,” he said. “This could lead to better patient management and cost savings.”
source: Rutgers University
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