Standards Created for MRI to Advance Prostate Cancer Care

A joint effort of radiology foundations has been established to create standards for high-quality prostate magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and to expedite its transfer from laboratories to patients. Standards for the Magnetic Resonance Prostate Imaging Reporting and Data System (MR PI-RADS) are modeled after successful efforts in breast cancer care, and planned for released in early 2013.

The goal of this international cooperation, which involves the American College of Radiology (ACR; Reston, VA, USA), AdMeTech Foundation (Boston, MA, USA), and European Society of Urogenital Radiology (ESUR; Vienna, Austria), is to address the key challenge in prostate cancer care recently outlined by the US Preventive Services Task Force (Rockville, MD, USA), American Cancer Society (Houston, TX, USA), and other groups--improving early detection while reducing unnecessary biopsies and treatment. MR PI-RADS will be based on prostate MRI guidelines developed by ESUR and the work by the AdMeTech Foundation’s International Prostate MRI Working Group.

AdMeTech Foundation has been providing international leadership in supporting research, development and testing of high-precision prostate MRI since 1998. AdMeTech’s research program has been funded by the Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center, US Army Medical Research, and Materiel Command (Fort Detrick, MD, USA).

Dr. Faina Shtern, president of AdMeTech Foundation, said, “In the ‘90s, the American College of Radiology led development of the BI-RADS standardization of breast cancer imaging which transformed women’s health. Over the last several years, ESUR led the way in the development of proposed clinical reporting guidelines for prostate MRI. On behalf of AdMeTech Foundation, I would like to thank Dr. Jeffrey Weinreb of ACR and Jelle Barentsz of ESUR for their leadership and partnership in PI-RADS standardization of prostate imaging, which is expected to make a direct and immediate impact on ending the era of blind prostate cancer care and creating the future of the image guided, least invasive, and the most cost-effective diagnosis and treatment.”

Dr. Mitchell Schnall, a professor of radiology at the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, USA), a pioneer of the prostate-dedicated MRI, one of the original recipients of AdMeTech’s research support for high-precision imaging and a lead investigator of the American College of Radiology Imaging Network, stated, “Over the last several years, I have been watching growing scientific evidence in support of prostate MRI and its potential to improve patient care in the way which is strongly reminiscent of the research progress we had seen 20 years ago in breast cancer imaging. As a man who lost his father to the complications of prostate cancer and its treatment, I am experiencing a sense of renewed hope for so many men facing the threat of prostate cancer every day.”

Prostate cancer is the most common major cancer in the United States and the second most deadly cancer in men. Prostate cancer--diagnosed in as many as one in six men--has become even more common than breast cancer (striking one in eight women). In spite of the magnitude of the prostate cancer epidemic, prostate cancer has not been recognized as a public health priority, and men do not have accurate diagnostic tools akin to life-saving mammograms.

AdMeTech Foundation is a nonprofit organization providing leadership for ground-breaking programs in research, education and awareness to advance diagnostic tools for improved early detection and treatment of prostate cancer.

The ACR is a national professional organization serving more than 34,000 radiologists, radiation oncologists, interventional radiologists, nuclear medicine physicians, and medical physicists with programs focusing on the practice of radiology and the delivery of comprehensive health care services.

The European Society of Urogenital Radiology was founded to promote high quality science and clinical practice of urogenital radiology. Members of the ESUR are world-leading radiologists in the field of urogenital radiology. This society was particularly successful with establishment of guidelines on the safe use of contrast media and on female genital imaging, and recently on standardization of prostate MRI.

Related Links:
American College of Radiology
AdMeTech Foundation
European Society of Urogenital Radiology