Abstract
Xenia Forsselliana 2016
Since 1992, the Xenia Forsselliana Prize, originally based on a sum of money to promote radiological research given in the occasion of the 65th birthday of Gösta Forssell, has been awarded for the best article from one of the five Nordic countries published in Acta Radiologica that year.
The editorial board of Acta Radiologica have, after a nomination among the members of the editorial board followed by a formal voting procedure, decided that the Xenia Forsselliana Prize of 2016 should be awarded to Dr. Michael Brun Andersen (Fig. 1) from Roskilde/Aarhus, Denmark for his article “CT texture analysis can help differentiate between malignant and benign lymph nodes in the mediastinum in patients suspected for lung cancer” (1).
Dr. Michael Brun Andersen: winner of the Xenia Forsselliana Prize 2016.
Michael Brun Andersen was born in 1980 and was educated and received his MD from the University of Copenhagen in 2007. He was recognized as a consultant in radiology in October 2014. During his study period at the University of Copenhagen, Dr. Brun Andersen had a research year at the Laboratory for Molecular Pharmacology at the University of Copenhagen. He worked as an intern at the Department of Radiology, Holbæk Hospital during the period 2009–2012, whereafter he was appointed as intern at the Department of Radiology at Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen. Since November 2014, he has worked as a consultant at Zealand’s University Hospital at Roskilde. Since February 2010, he has also been engaged as clinical assistant at the Department of Radiology at Aarhus University Hospital and as well as being a PhD student since March 2016. Dr. Brun Andersen gave oral presentations about texture analysis at the ICIS conferences in both 2013 and 2014.
The purpose of his prize-winning article was to evaluate if CT texture analysis (CTTA) could differentiate between malignant and benign lymph nodes in a cohort of patients with suspected lung cancer. In this patient group, lymph node staging in the mediastinum is important due to its impact on both treatment and prognosis. With tissue sampling as the reference standard, 46 lymph nodes from 29 patients were analyzed using CTTA. For each lymph node, CTTA was performed using the research software “TexRAD” by drawing a region of interest (ROI) on all CT slices covering the entire volume of the lymph nodes. Lymph node CTTA comprised image filtration histogram analysis undertaking two stages. The first step uses an application of a Laplacian of Gaussian filter to highlight fine to coarse textures within the ROI. The second step is a quantification of textures via histogram analysis using mean gray-level intensity from the entire volume of the lymph nodes. By this technique, a statistically significant difference between malignant and benign lymph nodes could be established with a sensitivity of 53% and a specificity of 97% in the test population.
The prize consists of SEK 40,000 and a Diploma. The official presentation of the prize will take place during the Nordic Congress of Radiology in Reykjavik, Iceland on 30 June 2017. An oral presentation of the paper will take place at the Acta Radiologica Session the same day.
The editorial board congratulates Dr. Brun Andersen for winning the Prize.
Acta Radiologica International Scientific Prize 2016
The Board of the Foundation Acta Radiologica decided on 18 May that an international prize consisting of SEK 40,000 and a Diploma should be awarded annually for the best scientific article from a non-Nordic country. The prize was given the name “Acta Radiologica International Scientific Prize”. The prize-winner should be decided by the Journal’s editorial board after nominations and final voting.
It is hereby my pleasure to announce that the very first International Prize has been awarded to Dr. Johannes Nowak (Fig. 2) from Würzburg, Germany for his article “The value of ADC, T2 signal intensity, and a combination of both parameters to assess Gleason score and primary Gleason grades in patients with known prostate cancer” (2).
Dr. Johannes Nowak: winner of the Acta Radiologica International Scientific Prize 2016.
Johannes Nowak was born in Weimar, Germany in 1984 and graduated from Charité University, Berlin, Germany in 2010 after having obtained his state examination (MD) and doctorate. In 2010–2012, he was affiliated to the Department of Radiology at Charité University Hospital in Berlin. When he moved to Würzburg, Germany, he first worked at the Department of Neuroradiology during 2012–2014 and thereafter at the Department of Radiology at the University Hospital. He underwent the board examination of Radiology in April this year. After a research stay at Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA, USA, he was a founder of the Berlin-Boston Research Exchange (berlinboston.com). In 2007–2010, he was a scholarship holder of the German National Academic Foundation.
His main research interests have been within MRI in pediatric brain tumors, functional neuroimaging, and MRI in prostate cancer. Dr. Nowak is the first author of five original articles published in peer-reviewed journals and co-author of 11 articles. He has also published three case reports.
The purpose of the prize-winning study, planned and performed in cooperation with Dr. Nowak’s mentor, Dr. Tahir Durmus of the Department of Radiology, Charité University Hospital, was to evaluate the ability to non-invasively analyze tumor aggressiveness as an important predictor for individual treatment stratification. Sixty-nine consecutive patients with biopsy-proven prostate cancer (PCA) underwent endorectal multiparametric MRI. Only patients with whole-mount, step-sectioned pathological evaluation of prostatectomy specimens were included in this analysis. Three patients were excluded so the final population consisted of 66 patients. The first aim was to test whether apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), standardized T2-weighted imaging (T2s), and the combination of ADC and T2s (ADC/T2s ratio) allowed a better discrimination between low-risk, intermediate, or high-risk tumors using histopathology as reference standard, and also to calculate ADC cutoff values in order to non-invasively differentiate tumors with a Gleason score (GS) ≥ 7 from GS < 7.
The study concluded that the ADC/T2s ratio did not provide additional information regarding prediction of GS. ADC values had, however, a good discriminatory power to distinguish tumors with GS ≥ 7 from GS < 7 and to predict primary Gleason grades in GS = 7 PCA.
The prize consists of SEK 40,000 and a Diploma. The official presentation of the prize will take place during the Nordic Congress of Radiology in Reykjavik, Iceland on 30 June 2017. An oral presentation of the paper will take place at the Acta Radiologica Session the same day.
The editorial board congratulates Dr. Nowak for winning the Prize.