Validating QIN Tools

QIN researchers endeavor to enhance quantitative imaging in clinical trials for prediction and/or measurement of response to cancer therapies. One avenue for this enhancement is to emphasize the development, optimization and validation of state-of-the-art quantitative imaging methods and software tools for potential implementation in single or multi-site clinical trials. The second avenue to enhance quantitative imaging methods is to address the challenges of integrating existing and or new quantitative imaging methods as required for multicenter clinical trials. This may involve evaluation of a range of multimodal imaging approaches, harmonization of image data collection, analysis, display and clinical workflow methods across imaging platforms, or testing their performance across different cancer site.

The short list below showcases a few of the recent mature QIN tools involved in prospective clinical trials:

INSTITUTION	Tool Name	Tool Type	Image modality	Tool Capabilities	Tool Description
Columbia University	Solid Tumor Segmentation	Algorithm: segmentation methods for solid tumors	CT, MRI, and/or PET	Solid tumor segmentation	Software for segmentation of solid tumors (e.g., tumors in lung, liver and lymph nodes).
Emory	Spectroscopic MRI clinical interface	A web-based sMRI clinical interface for the analysis, visualization and integration of sMRI data into patient management.	MR Spectroscopy	(1) The integration of automated spectral filtering to enable ad-hoc and post-hoc filtering of any data imported into the web applications; (2) Rigid registration of the sMRI maps with clinical images; (3) Automated segmentation of regions-of-interest in metabolite maps.	A useful and intuitive framework to assist end-users in displaying, evaluating and manipulating sMRI metabolic information alongside standard clinical images, enabling integration of volumetric metabolic data into the clinical workflow.
Medical College Wisconsin	IB Clinic	FDA-cleared and CE-marked suite of post-processing software algorithms for quantitative analysis and decision support.	MRI and CT	Uses include processing of DSC-MRI, Perfusion-CT, DWI-MRI, and DCE-MRI data as well as automated determination of regions of enhancement from pre- and post-contrast T1-weighted MRI.	IB Neuro: Employs an enhanced contrast agent leakage correction algorithm for MR DSC perfusion analysis. IB Delta Suite: Contains several fundamental radiology tools including image co-registration, image subtraction, class map exporting, and image intensity calibration. IB Delta Suite is also used to generate "Delta T1" maps using pre- and post-contrast T1 images.
Johns Hopkins	AutoPERCIST	A working software application for quantitative analysis, translation of QIN research into practice, or decision support.	PET, PET/CT	Clinical decision support, Image Quantitation - Static, Image segmentation, Image viewer/visualization, Response assessment.	Software for semi-automated PERCIST-based analysis of FDG-PET image studies.
Stanford	ePAD Web-based image viewer and annotator	A working software application for quantitative analysis, translation of QIN research into practice, or decision support. The tool has a plugin mechanism for extending the platform and for translating QIN methods into clinical trials.	Modality independent	Clinical decision support, Data collection, Data mining, Image annotation, Image metadata archiving, Response assessment.	A Web-based image viewing and annotation platform to enable deploying quantitative imaging biomarkers into clinical trial workflow.
University of California San Francisco	Aegis SER	Software Application and Algorithm for Volumetric analysis of Breast Cancer response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy	MRI, DCE-MRI	Image Quantitation - Dynamic, Image reconstruction, Image registration, Image segmentation, Image viewer/visualization; Commercial version used by approximately 20 sites in the I- SPY 2 TRIAL.	Image processing and analysis package for breast MRI; primary application is volumetric analysis of breast tumors based on DCE-MRI contrast kinetics.
University of Michigan	Mi Viewer	Versatile software tool can annotate, outline, and measure lesions in the bladder, lung, head & neck and most other solid tumor sites.	CT, PET/CT, MRI, and Ultrasound	Can automatically segment lesions in 3D, estimate the lesion volume, and estimate the lesion change based on radiomic features such as gray level, shape and texture features. It has utility in clinical decision support, image quantitation, static image segmentation, image viewer/visualization, volume assessment, radiomics feature analysis, and response assessment.	The tool allows the clinician to view the anatomical site slice by slice for possible lesions, mark a volume of interest (VOI), outline the lesion, identify the lesion center and measure the lesion dimensions. The tool can also perform automatic 3D lesion volume segmentation within an interactively marked bounding box of the lesion.
University of Iowa	Extension for 3D Slicer - PET Tumor Segmentation	Quantitative PET segmentation tool	PET	The PET Tumor Segmentation tool represents a highly computer-aided method for segmentation of hot lesions on PET scans.	Tool is based on an algorithm that transforms the segmentation problem into a graph-based optimization problem.
University of Michigan	Quantitative DWI QC	A software tool which centralizes analysis for site qualification and longitudinal QC for DWI	DW-MRI	Capable of working with multi-vendor trace DW-MRI standard DICOM with multiple b-value and repeat scans, which provides: 1) full exam series catalogue; 2) acquisition protocol compliance check; 3) visualization of DWI and derived ADC maps for user-supervised ROI loci definition; 4) statistical analysis of ROIs for DWI and ADC maps	The software consists of Matlab-based p-combo libraries (1) to build uniform data structures from multi-vendor DWI DICOM and checks for scan protocol compliance, and (2) to process ADC and SNR statistics for DWI phantom ROIs to evaluate technical scanner performance in multi-site trials using quantitative diffusion metrics.
University of Michigan	imFIAT	A graphic user interface with input / output with basic manipulation of images via image calculator having tools for volume contouring	imFIAT provides quantification tools for DCE and diffusion MRI, and FDG PET	imFIAT provides quantification tools for imaging biomarker discovery and radiation boosting target definition. Also, imFIAT provides workflow for using imaging biomarkers for radiation therapy.	The principal functionalities include image registration; volumetric analyses; image and voxel based analysis tools.
University of Iowa	Automated PET Phantom Analysis & Reporting Tool (APPART)	Cloud-based software tool	PET	The dockerized software tools are designed to perform fully automated analysis of PET phantom data sets. The tool generates pdf output reports specific to each PET phantom.	Cloud-based software tool designed to analyze four most common clinically used phantoms in oncology for PET.
Brigham & Women's Hospital Dana Farber	3D Slicer	3D Slicer is an open source software platform for medical image informatics, image processing, and three-dimensional visualization.	MRI	Built over two decades through support from the National Institutes of Health and a worldwide developer community, Slicer brings free, powerful cross-platform processing tools to physicians, researchers, and the public.	PKModeling is an extension which provides pharmacokinetic modeling for DCE MRI. DWModeling is module within the SlicerProstate extension of 3D Slicer which implements fitting various models to Diffusion Weighted MRI data. "Radiomics" is an interactive tool within 3D Slicer that enables extraction of Radiomics features from medical imaging.
Dana Farber	PyRadiomics	Open-source Python package for the extraction of Radiomics features from medical imaging.	Modality Independent	PyRadiomics attempts to establish a reference standard for radiomic analysis, and to provide a tested and maintained open-source platform for easy and reproducible radiomic feature extraction.	Operating on images that are modality independent, this software is site independent and can be run by ay user.