mpMRI-Based Risk Estimation to Optimize Prostate Cancer Patient Selection for Active Surveillance

Background/Objectives: Active surveillance (AS) has emerged as a safe alternative to primary therapy for low- and select intermediate-risk prostate cancer (PCa), but optimal patient selection and surveillance strategies remain challenging due to limited risk stratification tools enabling early detection of lesions with high potential for histopathological progression. This study presents an integrated method for predicting prostate cancer progression within 12 months, aiming to improve AS patient selection by categorizing patients into two risk groups: rapid progressors who would benefit from immediate treatment and slow progressors suitable for AS. Methods: The risk assessment platform combines convolutional neural networks for automatic segmentation of prostate and suspicious-for-cancer lesions on multiparametric MRI (mpMRI) with logistic regression to estimate progression risk. The networks were trained on annotated lesions from radical prostatectomy specimen mapped to mpMRI. The prediction model incorporated pre-biopsy clinical variables (age, PSA, PI-RADS) and MRI-derived intratumoral radiomic features from 163 participants of a prospective clinical trial, using histopathological progression within 12 months as endpoint. Results: The clinical-radiomics model achieved an AUC of 0.84 in distinguishing rapid from slow progressors, using non-invasive monitoring techniques. In an independent test set, the model significantly improved AS patient selection, increasing negative predictive value by 18.5% compared to current standard-of-care (p < 0.001). Conclusions: The risk assessment platform shows promise for use during annual follow-up visits to reliably differentiate suitable AS candidates with stable disease from PCa patients who are likely to experience early progression.