June2018

Courtesy of Prof Zhihong Huang, this image shows an ultrasound technique, shear wave elastography (SWE), applied to the detection of prostate cancer. SWE is used to assess tissue stiffness, which can distinguish between malignant and benign tissue. In an MRI-negative patient, SWE imaging (top left) shows high tissue stiffness and prostate capsule breaches, indicative of high grade prostate cancer, later confirmed through whole-mount pathology (top right). Prostate stones are visible in traditional B-mode ultrasound imaging (bottom left), also confirmed in prostate specimen slice (bottom right). Without the need for invasive surgery, SWE shows high diagnostic accuracy and reliably differentiates between different grades of prostate cancer.

The image is taken from a recent study now in press in the Journal of Urology:

Wei C, Li C, Szewczyk-Bieda M, Upreti D, Lang S, Huang Z, Nabi G. Performance characteristics of transrectal shear wave elastography (SWE) imaging in the evaluation of clinically localised prostate cancer: A prospective study. Journal of Urology, 2018.