Evaluation of a 3D MR/MR elastic registration method for prostate cancer imaging

Early detection and localization of prostate cancer is crucial for appropriate patient management. Recent studies suggest that computer-assisted diagnosis systems combining different imaging modalities (MR/MR, MR/US) can improve prostate cancer detection1 and open the way to targeted biopsies and focal therapy2. Such fusion processes are limited by prostate motion and deformation, particularly at the prostate-rectum interface. A non-rigid multimodal image registration process based on shape statistics has been developed to coregister T2-weighted MR and 3D transrectal ultrasound acquisitions3. Based on the good precision achieved4, this method was adapted to coregister T2-weighted, diffusion-weighted (DW) and dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) images and evaluated on 28 prostate cancer patients.