New breast cancer hope as AI breakthrough could save thousands of women from chemotherapy
- Scientists believe new method could save NHS millions of pounds each year
- Provides a quick way to determine if the disease is likely to return after surgery
- Thin sections of tumors may now be sent to California for analysis.
- But sending samples abroad is expensive for the NHS and time consuming for women.
Thousands of women with breast cancer have been spared unnecessary chemotherapy thanks to new technology powered by artificial intelligence.
Scientists believe the new method could save the NHS millions of pounds each year by making it faster and cheaper to determine if the disease is likely to return after surgery.
At this time, if a woman has a breast lump removed, a thin slice of the tumor may be sent to California for analysis to gauge how advanced the cancer is.
The result is a “score” that indicates the likelihood that the woman’s cancer will return within 10 years. If her risk score is high, her oncologist recommends that she undergo chemotherapy to kill any remaining cancer cells.
Thousands of women with breast cancer could avoid unnecessary chemotherapy thanks to new technology using artificial intelligence
But sending samples out of the country is expensive for the NHS and time consuming for stressed women waiting for results.
Also, decisions are often made without samples being sent. In such cases, oncologists are often heedless and recommend drug treatment.
Chemotherapy can be a lifesaver, but it can cause unpleasant side effects such as nausea, fatigue, and hair loss, and can harm long-term heart health.
A new method, called Digistain, aims to provide a faster and cheaper service for the NHS, allowing more women to be thoroughly assessed for their need for chemotherapy.
Its Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Hemmel Amrania, said:
Scientists believe the new method could save the NHS millions of pounds each year as it offers a faster and cheaper way to determine if the disease is likely to return after surgery. .
This could mean up to 4,000 women a year avoiding unnecessary chemotherapy, he added.
A 2020 study found that each time a woman undergoes chemotherapy for early-stage breast cancer, it costs around £1,000 in drug costs alone.
This means that the new test could save £4m a year, excluding labor.
The total NHS chemotherapy budget is around £1.5 billion.
What’s more, Dr Amrania said the new test is far cheaper than the £2,000 to £4,000 cost of sending samples to the US for analysis.
The method, based on research conducted at Imperial College London, uses a machine the size of a desktop printer to scan microscopically thin biopsy samples mounted on slides to detect cancer. Automate the process of assessing your progress.
A new method, called Digistain, aims to provide a faster and cheaper service for the NHS, allowing more women to be thoroughly assessed for their need for chemotherapy.
Just as an office scanner digitizes a photograph and records information as thousands of pixels, a Digistain machine converts a biopsy slice into a digital file.
But rather than recording the color and intensity of the spots in digital photographs, they record patterns that indicate the presence of aggressive cancer-associated proteins.
By comparing thousands of digitized photographs, researchers have developed a computer program that “learns” which images indicate advanced cancer.
The Midlands NHS Hospital Trust will soon begin using Digistain for breast cancer, said Dr Amrania, and the method is being rolled out in several hospitals in the United States and India.
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