2 July 2023 15:47 – Updated 2 July 2023 15:47
A new type of technology that cuts waiting times for cancer patients will become available in the UK.
A doctor now spends between 25 minutes and two hours going through images from scans from a single patient. This is to mark the specific areas that need to be treated with radiation.
The new technology, which uses artificial intelligence, should be able to do this work 2.5 times faster than the doctor can.
It writes BBC.
Still to be reviewed
The technology aims to be able to treat tumors and cancer cells with the highest possible precision, without damaging surrounding organs and bones.
According to the researchers behind the project, the program manages this with 90 percent accuracy. The doctors must therefore still check the work the technology has done.
– Our colleagues preferred to start with the artificial intelligence’s work, says Dr. Raj Jena to the BBC. He leads the work on head, neck and prostate cancer at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge.
The doctor explains that radiotherapy, when it comes to the prostate, for example, is a delicate affair. If you hit surrounding areas, such as the rectum, the patient can suffer injuries that affect them for life.
– I know of patients who have maps of all the cities they are going to, so they know where the toilets are, says Jena.
– Capacity to increase speed
– Artificial intelligence has the ability to increase the speed of the diagnostic process, help doctors find diseases faster and give patients the best possible chance of recovery, says Dr. Katharine Halliday according to the BBC.
She is president of the Royal College of Radioligy, and believes there is no risk of losing the need for radiologists. That’s because they still have to interpret complex scans and guide treatment and operations.
Nevertheless, she has no doubt that artificial intelligence will become an important tool in cancer treatment.
– A radiologist with the data, insight and accuracy of artificial intelligence is, and increasingly will be, a formidable force in patient care, says Halliday.
2023-07-02 13:47:46
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