The Prostate Imaging - Reporting and Data System Version 2 (PI-RADS™ v2) is the product of an international collaboration of the American College of Radiology (ACR), European Society of Uroradiology (ESUR), and AdMetech Foundation. It is designed to promote global standardization and diminish variation in the acquisition, interpretation, and reporting of prostate multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (mpMRI) examination, and it is based on the best available evidence and expert consensus opinion. It establishes minimum acceptable technical parameters for prostate mpMRI, simplifies and standardizes terminology and content of reports, and provides assessment categories that summarize levels of suspicion or risk of clinically significant prostate cancer that can be used to assist selection of patients for biopsies and management. It is intended to be used in routine clinical practice and also to facilitate data collection and outcome monitoring for research.

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The National Cancer Institute held a workshop entitled "Breast Imaging: State-of-the-Art and Technologies of the Future" in September 1991. This article describes some of the presentations given at the workshop as well as relevant data in the literature and discusses their implications. The workshop faculty identified digital mammography as the evolving technology with the greatest potential impact on management of breast cancer. On the basis of the workshop findings and literature review, the author proposed to form the National Digital Mammography Development Group, which will stimulate research in digital mammography and its integration with related technologies: image processing for improved lesion contrast, automated computer-aided diagnosis for enhanced breast cancer detection and characterization, and teleradiology for facilitated radiologic consultation with recognized experts in the field. It is expected that the National Digital Mammography Development Group will facilitate transfer of advanced digital imaging technology to breast cancer clinics.

The concept of intraepithelial neoplasm (IEN) as a near-obligate precursor of cancers has generated opportunities to examine drug or device intervention strategies that may reverse or retard the sometimes lengthy process of carcinogenesis [92,93, 144,189]. Chemopreventive agents with high therapeutic indices, well-monitored for efficacy and safety, are greatly needed, as is development of less invasive or minimally disruptive visualization and assessment methods to safely screen nominally healthy but at-risk patients, often for extended periods of time and at repeated intervals. Imaging devices, alone or in combination with anticancer drugs, may also provide novel interventions to treat or prevent precancer.

In December 1991, the National Cancer Institute held a workshop to evaluate the role of magnetic resonance (MR) spectroscopy in human cancer biology. The clinical and basic cancer research issues requiring use of MR spectroscopy, the advantages and limitations of MR spectroscopy, and future directions in MR spectroscopy of cancer were discussed. Consensus-building panels were formed on the following four topics: cell membrane biochemistry, tumor therapeutic response or drug resistance, appropriate model systems, and potential clinical applications of MR spectroscopy. The workshop members concluded that large prospective clinical studies as well as in vivo animal and human studies to define prognostic variables should be performed, with correlation between MR spectroscopic results and biochemical and physiologic features. Studies of phospholipid metabolism, the pharmacokinetics of anticancer agents, and effects of new cancer treatments on the tumor vasculature and normal tissues are needed.