Researchers in a recent breakthrough have identified a better and more advanced way to examine cancer biopsies by using artificial intelligence (AI).
A Norwegian start-up, DoMore Diagnostics, is deploying a cutting-edge AI tool to revolutionize the way colorectal cancer is detected, thereby sparing cancer patients from unnecessary chemotherapy.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), colorectal cancer is the third most common and second most fatal cancer globally.
In 2022, 2.74 million new colon cancer-related cases were documented in Europe, as reported by the European Commission’s estimates published in the European Cancer Information System (ECIS).
“With AI and large data, thousands of slides, we have super-specialised an algorithm. We personalise cancer treatment by utilising the power of AI,” said Torbjørn Furuseth, Domore Diagnostics CEO.
The technology developed by the start-up can assess tissue samples in far greater detail as it trained on thousands of images.
According to Andreas Kleppe, a research director at Oslo University Hospital Research, the AI-powered system offers more accuracy and better judgement in detecting cancer-related risks, including the chances of recurrence and death.
“When we develop the AI solutions, we feed in these images directly, and then the outcome of the patients several years after surgery,” Kleppe said.
“And then we make the computer see the relationship between those. So we don't rely on the pathologist's evaluation directly, we just rely on the outcome,” he added.
Kleppe also explained, “It [the AI] picks up many of the features that pathologists also look at, but it of course also combines this and looks at things that pathologists may not know.”
Prognostic analysis is considered an important step after surgery to analyze the chances of recurrence in patients.
Therefore, patients are resorted to, sometimes unnecessary, chemotherapy to eliminate the chances, but causing long-term side effects.
“Exactly understanding what represents high risk of metastasis and low risk is difficult for a human to judge because it's so complex,” Furuseth said.
As a result of this process, the doctors gain precise understanding of the aggressive nature of cancer.
Currently, Domore Diagnostics’ colorectal-cancer test is currently running in Europe, the US, Japan, and Mexico’s hospitals to validate prognosis.
