Restratification of patients with advanced-stage hepatocellular carcinomas according to enhancement-based, three-dimensional, quantitative tumor burden measurements identified patients who would be... Background Patients with intermediate- and advanced-stage hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) represent a highly heterogeneous patient collective with substantial differences in overall survival. Purpos...
Primary neuroendocrine carcinoma of the breast (NECB) as defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2012 is a rare, but possibly under-diagnosed entity. It is heterogeneous as it entails a wide spectrum of diseases comprising both well-differentiated neuroendocrine tumors of the breast as well as highly aggressive small cell carcinomas. Retrospective screening of hospital charts of 612 patients (2008–2019) from our specialized outpatient unit for neuroendocrine neoplasia revealed five patients diagnosed with NECB. Given the low prevalence of these malignancies, correct diagnosis remains a challenge that requires an interdisciplinary approach. Specifically, NECB may be misclassified as carcinoma of the breast with neuroendocrine differentiation, carcinomas of the breast of no special type/invasive ductal carcinoma, or a metastasis to the breast. Therefore, this study presents multifaceted characteristics as well as the clinical course of these patients and discusses the five cases from our institution in the context of available literature.
Noninvasive molecular MRI can be used to visualize resistance mechanisms mediated by the tumor metabolism and immune evasion for strategic targeting by local-regional and immunotherapy in liver cancer. Background The immuno-metabolic interplay has gained interest for determining and targeting immunosuppressive tumor micro-environments that remain a barrier to current immuno-oncologic therapies in...
Objectives: To develop and test zone-specific prostate-specific antigen density (sPSAD) combined with PI-RADS to guide prostate biopsy decision strategies (BDS). Methods: This retrospective study included consecutive patients, who underwent prostate MRI and biopsy (01/2012–10/2018). The whole gland and transition zone (TZ) were segmented at MRI using a retrained deep learning system (DLS; nnU-Net) to calculate PSAD and sPSAD, respectively. Additionally, sPSAD and PI-RADS were combined in a BDS, and diagnostic performances to detect Grade Group ≥ 2 (GG ≥ 2) prostate cancer were compared. Patient-based cancer detection using sPSAD was assessed by bootstrapping with 1000 repetitions and reported as area under the curve (AUC). Clinical utility of the BDS was tested in the hold-out test set using decision curve analysis. Statistics included nonparametric DeLong test for AUCs and Fisher-Yates test for remaining performance metrics. Results: A total of 1604 patients aged 67 (interquartile range, 61–73) with 48% GG ≥ 2 prevalence (774/1604) were evaluated. By employing DLS-based prostate and TZ volumes (DICE coefficients of 0.89 (95% confidence interval, 0.80–0.97) and 0.84 (0.70–0.99)), GG ≥ 2 detection using PSAD was inferior to sPSAD (AUC, 0.71 (0.68–0.74)/0.73 (0.70–0.76); p < 0.001). Combining PI-RADS with sPSAD, GG ≥ 2 detection specificity doubled from 18% (10–20%) to 43% (30–44%; p < 0.001) with similar sensitivity (93% (89–96%)/97% (94–99%); p = 0.052), when biopsies were taken in PI-RADS 4-5 and 3 only if sPSAD was ≥ 0.42 ng/mL/cc as compared to all PI-RADS 3-5 cases. Additionally, using the sPSAD-based BDS, false positives were reduced by 25% (123 (104–142)/165 (146–185); p < 0.001). Conclusion: Using sPSAD to guide biopsy decisions in PI-RADS 3 lesions can reduce false positives at MRI while maintaining high sensitivity for GG ≥ 2 cancers. Clinical relevance statement: Transition zone-specific prostate-specific antigen density can improve the accuracy of prostate cancer detection compared to MRI assessments alone, by lowering false-positive cases without significantly missing men with ISUP GG ≥ 2 cancers. Key Points: • Prostate biopsy decision strategies using PI-RADS at MRI are limited by a substantial proportion of false positives, not yielding grade group ≥ 2 prostate cancer. • PI-RADS combined with transition zone (TZ)-specific prostate-specific antigen density (PSAD) decreased the number of unproductive biopsies by 25% compared to PI-RADS only. • TZ-specific PSAD also improved the specificity of MRI-directed biopsies by 9% compared to the whole gland PSAD, while showing identical sensitivity.
8 August 2022 in CardioVascular and Interventional Radiology