US Patent 10489908 Deep convolutional encoder-decoder for prostate cancer detection and classification

A method and apparatus for automated prostate tumor detection and classification in multi-parametric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is disclosed. A multi-parametric MRI image set of a patient, including a plurality of different types of MRI images, is received. Simultaneous detection and classification of prostate tumors in the multi-parametric MRI image set of the patient are performed using a trained multi-channel image-to-image convolutional encoder-decoder that inputs multiple MRI images of the multi-parametric MRI image set of the patient and includes a plurality of output channels corresponding to a plurality of different tumor classes. For each output channel, the trained image-to image convolutional encoder-decoder generates a respective response map that provides detected locations of prostate tumors of the corresponding tumor class in the multi-parametric MRI image set of the patient.