Differential atlas for cancer assessment

A method for producing a quantification of differences between a diagnostic image of a region of prostate tissue and a statistical shape atlas, the method comprising:

• accessing a statistical shape atlas, where the statistical shape atlas includes a set of registered medical images of prostate tissue acquired from a population of subjects, the population including a subpopulation of prostate cancer positive ( PCa+) subjects, a subpopulation of, prostate cancer negative (PCa−) subjects, and a subpopulation of normal subjects, where a prostate represented in an image in the set of medical images includes a shape and a volume;
• accessing a diagnostic image of a region of tissue demonstrating cancerous pathology;
• computing a shape of the prostate represented in the diagnostic image;
• computing a volume of the prostate represented in the diagnostic image;
• producing a quantification of differences between the region of tissue demonstrating cancerous pathology and the statistical shape atlas by comparing the shape of the prostate represented in the diagnostic image, the volume of the prostate represented in the diagnostic image, and the statistical shape atlas;
• generating a classification for the region of tissue demonstrating cancerous pathology based, at least in part, on the quantification of differences;
• and
• providing a prognosis prediction based on the classification or the quantification of differences.

An apparatus for predicting biochemical recurrence (BcR) in a region of tissue demonstrating prostate cancer (PCa) pathology in an image, comprising:

• a processor;
• a memory;
• a data store that stores a set of magnetic resonance (MR) images acquired from a population of subjects using a surface coil approach or an endorectal coil approach;
• an input/output interface;
• a set of logics;
• and
• an interface to connect the processor, the memory, the data store, the input/output interface and the set of logics, where the set of logics includes:
• an image acquisition logic that acquires a diagnostic image of a region of tissue in a patient demonstrating PCa pathology;
• a morphology logic that extracts a shape feature, a volume feature, or an intensity feature from the diagnostic image or from a member of the set of MR images;
• a differential atlas construction logic that constructs a statistical shape differential atlas from the set of MR images;
• and
• a quantification logic that computes a quantification of differences associated with the shape feature, the volume feature, or the intensity feature, and the differential atlas, and that generates a BcR probability score for the patient based, at least in part, the quantification of differences.