A Prostate Cancer Computer Aided Diagnosis Software including Malignancy Tumor Probabilistic Classification

Prostate Cancer (PCa) is the most common solid neoplasm in males and a major cause of cancer-related death. Screening based on Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) reduces the rate of death by 31%, but it is associated with a high risk of over-diagnosis and over-treatment. Prostate Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) has the potential to improve the specificity of PSA-based screening scenarios as a non-invasive detection tool. Research community effort focused on classification techniques based on MRI in order to produce a malignancy likelihood map. The paper describes the prototyping design, the implemented work-flow and the software architecture of a Computer Aided Diagnosis (CAD) software which aims at providing a comprehensive diagnostic tool, including an integrated classification stack, from a preliminary registration of images to the classification process. This software can improve the diagnostic accuracy of the radiologist, reduce reader variability and speed up the whole diagnostic work-up.