External Validation on a Japanese Cohort of a Computer-Aided Diagnosis System Aimed at Characterizing ISUP ≥ 2 Prostate Cancers at Multiparametric MRI.

Objective: To evaluate the generalizability of a computer-aided diagnosis (CADx) system based on the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and wash-in rate, and trained on a French population to diagnose International Society of Urological Pathology ≥ 2 prostate cancer on multiparametric MRI.

Methods: Sixty-eight consecutive patients who underwent radical prostatectomy at a single Japanese institution were retrospectively included. Pre-prostatectomy MRIs were reviewed by an experienced radiologist who assigned to suspicious lesions a Prostate Imaging-Reporting and Data System version 2.1 (PI-RADSv2.1) score and delineated them. The CADx score was computed from these regions-of-interest. Using prostatectomy whole-mounts as reference, the CADx and PI-RADSv2.1 scores were compared at the lesion level using areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUC), and sensitivities and specificities obtained with predefined thresholds.

Results: In PZ, AUCs were 80% (95% confidence interval [95% CI]: 71-90) for the CADx score and 80% (95% CI: 71-89; p = 0.886) for the PI-RADSv2.1score; in TZ, AUCs were 79% (95% CI: 66-90) for the CADx score and 93% (95% CI: 82-96; p = 0.051) for the PI-RADSv2.1 score. The CADx diagnostic thresholds that provided sensitivities of 86%-91% and specificities of 64%-75% in French test cohorts yielded sensitivities of 60% (95% CI: 38-83) in PZ and 42% (95% CI: 20-71) in TZ, with specificities of 95% (95% CI: 86-100) and 92% (95% CI: 73-100), respectively. This shift may be attributed to higher ADC values and lower dynamic contrast-enhanced temporal resolution in the test cohort.

Conclusion: The CADx obtained good overall results in this external cohort. However, predefined diagnostic thresholds provided lower sensitivities and higher specificities than expected.