A transfer learning nomogram for predicting prostate cancer and benign conditions on MRI

BACKGROUND: Deep learning has been used to detect or characterize prostate cancer (PCa) on medical images. The present study was designed to develop an integrated transfer learning nomogram (TLN) for the prediction of PCa and benign conditions (BCs) on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). METHODS: In this retrospective study, a total of 709 patients with pathologically confirmed PCa and BCs from two institutions were included and divided into training (n = 309), internal validation (n = 200), and external validation (n = 200) cohorts. A transfer learning signature (TLS) that was pretrained with the whole slide images of PCa and fine-tuned on prebiopsy MRI images was constructed. A TLN that integrated the TLS, the Prostate Imaging–Reporting and Data System (PI-RADS) score, and the clinical factor was developed by multivariate logistic regression. The performance of the TLS, clinical model (CM), and TLN were evaluated in the validation cohorts using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, the Delong test, the integrated discrimination improvement (IDI), and decision curve analysis. RESULTS: TLS, PI-RADS score, and age were selected for TLN construction. The TLN yielded areas under the curve of 0.9757 (95% CI, 0.9613–0.9902), 0.9255 (95% CI, 0.8873–0.9638), and 0.8766 (95% CI, 0.8267–0.9264) in the training, internal validation, and external validation cohorts, respectively, for the discrimination of PCa and BCs. The TLN outperformed the TLS and the CM in both the internal and external validation cohorts. The decision curve showed that the TLN added more net benefit than the CM. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed TLN has the potential to be used as a noninvasive tool for PCa and BCs differentiation. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12880-023-01163-7.