“Our goal is to develop a non-invasive tool using biological data combined with imaging data and deep learning technology. This could lead to a new way to assess rectal tumours to personalise and improve treatment,” said Professor Campbell Roxburgh, cancer researcher and surgeon.
A team of University of Glasgow scientists are to develop an AI tool that it’s hoped will improve treatment for people with debilitating rectal cancer.
The work, led by Professor Campbell Roxburgh, a cancer researcher and surgeon at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary, has been awarded £505,414 from Stand Up To Cancer to begin developing the new technology.
The ultimate goal is to create a tool using deep learning that can predict more accurately how a patient will respond to treatment by picking up on tiny changes and differences in tissue samples impossible to detect by the human eye.
According to the researchers, this state-of-the-art technology could help spare people from having major life-changing surgery, and give them a better quality of life.
“There should be no one size fits all scenario in rectal cancer. It’s vital we move towards a more individualised approach,” said Professor Roxburgh.
“What we do know is that it’s better for well-being if at all possible to direct patients down less aggressive or less invasive treatments and avoid permanent side effects. Our goal is to develop a non-invasive tool using biological data combined with imaging data and deep learning technology. This could lead to a new way to assess rectal tumours to personalise and improve treatment.”
Around 4,000 people are diagnosed with bowel cancer each year in Scotland, with diagnosis currently coming from tissue samples taken from cancer patients that are examined under a microscope by pathologists. Those observations on the tumour’s type and stage of growth determine each patient’s course of treatment, but without knowing how individual patients will respond to treatments.
Professor Roxburgh’s group wants to use AI’s ability to pick up tiny changes and differences in tissues to more accurately predict a patient’s outcome, avoiding what might be ineffective, yet life-changing surgery.
Cancer Research UK spokeswoman for Scotland, Lisa Adams, said: “From developing pioneering technology using lasers and robots to improve cancer surgery to using AI to optimise radiotherapy treatment for rectal cancer and creating lollypops that could detect mouth cancer, we’re at the cutting edge of research.
“But we must go further and faster. Nearly one in two of us will get cancer in our lifetime. All of us can help beat it. That’s why we’re asking everyone to Stand Up To Cancer with us.”