Prostate cancer is the 2nd most commonly occurring cancer in men and the 4th most common cancer overall. About 1 in 8 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during their lifetime. The standard procedure for its diagnosis is clinical history, a PSA blood test, followed by an MRI scan and finally, a biopsy. Despite their frequency, prostate biopsies remain expensive, painful, undignified affairs with limited diagnostic yield.

In current prostate cancer diagnostic procedures, as many as 50% of biopsies yield negative results, while up to 35% show false positives. Fractalyzer offers a solution by utilizing standard MRI imaging to non-invasively determine whether a prostate lesion warrants a biopsy, effectively addressing these issues. It does this by first conducting a “fractal analysis” of lesions detected on scans.

Such an analysis visually displays how ‘complex’ a lesion is, with lesions that display higher fractal dimensions linked to increasing tumor aggressiveness. By visually showing a cancer’s aggressiveness, clinicians can easily segment cases into low- and high-risk categories that may or may not warrant a further biopsy.

The implementation of Fractalyzer is compatible with standard clinical equipment and can be applied retroactively to existing data. By integrating their non-invasive, patented method into a patient’s diagnostic journey, Fractalyzer aims to reduce the number of unnecessary biopsies and provide a reliable non-invasive option for active surveillance to monitor cancer development. This could optimize healthcare resources, avoid unnecessary complications and pain for biopsies, and provide an easier way to manage nonaggressive tumors in prostate cancer patients.

Fractalyzer boasts a dynamic team featuring two distinguished radiologists. One serves as the vice chair of the radiology department at Charité, while the other holds a professorship at Japan’s Mie University and is partially funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The team also benefits from the guidance of an experienced economic advisor with a strong background in medical informatics, enhancing their strategic approach.

Team Fractalyzer envisions a future where prostate cancer patients experience a non-invasive and innovative approach to cancer grading, marking a significant leap forward in cancer diagnostics.