Prostate Whole-Mount Histology Reconstruction and Registration to MRI for Correlating in-vivo Observations with Biological Findings

Multi-parametric magnetic resonance imaging (mMRI) is the standard exam for prostate cancer diagnosis, staging and risk assessment in current clinical routine. Correlating mMRI in-vivo observations with biological findings from radical prostatectomy specimen would improve the optimal therapy selection. Thus, we proposed a method for reconstructing and registering the prostate whole-mount histology (WMH) to the MRI, considering a thin slicing of the prostatectomy specimen. The method was evaluated on 3 patients, included in a prospective study, for which hematein-eosin-safran and immunohistochemistry stainings were performed. The registration error was assessed by measuring the Euclidean distance between landmarks, previously identified by an expert on both mMRI and histological slices. The mean error was 4.90 +/- 1.34 mm. Our method demonstrated promising results for registering prostate WMH to in-vivo mMRI, thus allowing for spatial accurate correlation between radiologic observations and biological information.