Every 6 minutes someone in Europe dies of prostate cancer. According to the European Association of Urology, prostate cancer mortality has increased over the last years in several European countries after years of decline. Depending on the country 20-60% of cases are diagnosed in the metastatic stage. Therfore imposing a significant economic burden on health services. Obviously, there is an unmet need for a reliable procedure to confirm cancer and evaluate its aggressiveness after prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test indicated a problem. This will make prostate cancer screening a reality, reducing significantly the 9B€ cost of prostate cancer care in the EU.
The goal of ProVision is to cut mortality by providing a reliable screening tool for prostate cancer - the aim is to deliver a reliable and cost-effective device for diagnosing aggressive prostate cancer and apply it in screening programs with a very low rate of false positives. This allows the detection of the tumour while it is still contained in the prostate. Therefore, the cancer can be cured by the removal of the tumour when it is localised. After metastasis, the 5-year survival rate is below 30%.
ProVision benefits from a patented detector technology with a scintillator crystal block and an innovative geometry of photosensors. This design solves the parallax error inherent in conventional PET scanners so the detectors can be placed very close to the organ under study. ProVision will be equipped with advanced imaging software using deep-learning methods. The image will be clearer and have significantly improved signal to noise ratio. The innovative ProVision scanner will be able to detect very small tumours of around 2 mm and be able to differentiate between aggressive and indolent cancer cells.