Philips and Quibim partner on solutions for MR prostate exams

Philips is partnering with imaging biomarker specialist Quibim to launch AI-based imaging and reporting solutions for MR prostate exams. 

Approximately one in eight men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer at some point in their lifetime. Early detection currently relies largely on a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening blood test that may help detect prostate cancer early, especially for slow-growing cancers that never spread beyond the prostate gland. However, PSA screening tests also have poor specificity to clinically significant cancer, which can lead to many false positives and overdiagnoses. As a result, patients undergo biopsies that turn out to be negative.

While MR exams are generally more expensive and time-consuming than PSA tests, recent research has demonstrated MR is a better triaging tool to guide biopsy decisions, as well as a diagnostic tool to help determine treatment planning and personalised therapy. By reducing the number of unnecessary biopsies performed and enabling better-targeted therapy for prostate cancer that does need treatment, MR exams can potentially result in overall cost savings and faster, more accurate diagnoses for patients.

Philips is already leveraging AI-powered technology like MR SmartSpeed image reconstruction software, which helps build clinical confidence with 65% higher resolution and outstanding image quality. Philips and Quibim have signed a multi-year agreement to work on an integrated solution including Quibim’s artificial intelligence (AI) based QP-Prostate software, to automate real-time prostate gland segmentation in MR images, generating meaningful quantitative insights, and standardising MR prostate exam reporting. Combined with Philips’ leading AI-based MR imaging solutions, the solution aims at providing clinicians with the speed and precision needed to deal with the growing number of patients for which a MR prostate exam offers the diagnostic confidence and personalised treatment needed to drive better outcomes.

Ruud Zwerink, general manager of MR at Philips, said: “This collaboration with Quibim is the latest example of our commitment to build an AI ecosystem into our Diagnostic Imaging portfolio to help detect conditions like cancer earlier, improve the rate of accurate first-time-right diagnosis, and streamline hospital operations to provide better care at lower costs. The development with Quibim will ultimately be extended to address other forms of cancer beyond prostate, where there is a need to improve efficiency and mitigate staff shortages while delivering high quality oncology care to an increasing number of patients.”

Angel Alberich-Bayarri, CEO of Quibim, added: “By combining Philips’ high-speed MR imaging and Quibim’s QP-Prostate software, we can provide the speed and diagnostic confidence to support all the different steps in an integrated diagnosis, treatment, and therapy assessment workflow. The upcoming version of our lesion detection algorithm will further expand the possibilities of MRI as a gamechanger in prostate cancer screening. This integrated approach, combined with workflow enhancing features, will help mitigate staff shortages, high burn-out rates, and cost constraints currently being experienced by many radiology and oncology departments. Patients will also greatly benefit from far less complex and painful biopsy procedures and more personalised treatment.”