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The Cancer Imaging Program of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in collaboration with the International Society for Biomedical Imaging (ISBI) have launched a grand challenge in the prostate gland based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data. The challenge will take place at the ISBI Symposium, April 7-11, 2013 in San Francisco, CA.
Healthcare Context
Prostate cancer is the second most common cause of cancer deaths in males and will inevitably afflict 1 on 6 during their lifetime. Difficulty in properly defining prostate anatomy lies at the heart of a problem in which many diagnostic prostate biopsies fail to detect the presence of occult cancers. Approximately 20% of ultrasound image guided prostate biopsies return negative results despite rising blood levels of PSA marker and presence of cancer somewhere in the 30+ cc gland. These failures have been attributed by some to the hesitation to sample one of the two major zones of the gland - namely the predilection toward the more easily reached "peripheral zone (PZ)" over the less accessible "central zone (CZ)". This year ISBI challenges contestants to outline these two non-overlapping adjacent regions of the gland.
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