Haralick texture analysis of prostate MRI: utility for differentiating non-cancerous prostate from prostate cancer and differentiating prostate cancers with different Gleason scores

Objectives: To investigate Haralick texture analysis of prostate MRI for cancer detection and differentiating Gleason scores (GS). Methods: One hundred and forty-seven patients underwent T2- weighted (T2WI) and diffusion-weighted prostate MRI. Cancers ≥0.5 ml and non-cancerous peripheral (PZ) and transition (TZ) zone tissue were identified on T2WI and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) maps, using whole-mount pathology as reference. Texture features (Energy, Entropy, Correlation, Homogeneity, Inertia) were extracted and analysed using generalized estimating equations. Results: PZ cancers (n = 143) showed higher Entropy and Inertia and lower Energy, Correlation and Homogeneity compared to non-cancerous tissue on T2WI and ADC maps (p-values: <.0001–0.008). In TZ cancers (n = 43) we observed significant differences for all five texture features on the ADC map (all p-values: <.0001) and for Correlation (p = 0.041) and Inertia (p = 0.001) on T2WI. On ADC maps, GS was associated with higher Entropy (GS 6 vs. 7: p = 0.0225; 6 vs. >7: p = 0.0069) and lower Energy (GS 6 vs. 7: p = 0.0116, 6 vs. >7: p = 0.0039). ADC map Energy (p = 0.0102) and Entropy (p = 0.0019) were significantly different in GS ≤3 + 4 versus ≥4 + 3 cancers; ADC map Entropy remained significant after controlling for the median ADC (p = 0.0291). Conclusion: Several Haralick-based texture features appear useful for prostate cancer detection and GS assessment. Key Points: • Several Haralick texture features may differentiate non-cancerous and cancerous prostate tissue. • Tumour Energy and Entropy on ADC maps correlate with Gleason score. • T2w-image-derived texture features are not associated with the Gleason score.