NHS to pilot AI prostate cancer tests

Telegraph

17 hours ago

An AI tool to spot prostate cancer earlier is being piloted by the NHS.
The two-year scheme involving more than 3,000 men aims to speed up diagnosis of the disease, which is the most common form of cancer in men.
Every year around 55,000 men in the UK are diagnosed with prostate cancer and 12,000 die from it.
But just half of cases are caught at an early stage, when treatment is most effective.
Trials suggest the technology can help radiologists detect around 11 per cent more early-stage cancers by highlighting suspicious regions in MRI scans.
The software by Quibim uses advanced AI, trained on real pathology results, to segment the prostate into zones and highlight areas most likely to contain aggressive disease.
The two-year pilot, backed by £2.6 million in NHS funding, will be rolled out to seven hospitals in England.
Clinical trials suggest it can raise detection rates from 80 per cent to more than 90 per cent. Early detection dramatically improves survival rates.
Almost all men who are diagnosed with stage one or two of the disease are alive five years later, compared with rates of less than 50 per cent for those with late-stage disease.
As well as looking at detection rates, the pilot will examine the cost-effectiveness of the approach to see if the NHS can save money by catching the disease sooner.
It will also examine the impact on inequalities in heath, with black men twice as likely to get prostate cancer.
Prof Peter Johnson, national clinical director for cancer at NHS England, said: 'The NHS is funding and testing this exciting AI technology to help us diagnose and treat prostate cancer patients as quickly as possible and offer them the best chance of survival.
'As part of the 10-Year Health Plan, the NHS is taking advantage of our unique position to test state-of-the-art technology like this, and rolling it out as fast as we can to make the NHS fit for the future.'
Dr. Ángel Alberich-Bayarri, chief executive of Quibim said: 'This NHS rollout is a major milestone in our mission to improve cancer diagnostics through AI.
'We're proud to support the NHS in advancing early detection and addressing health inequalities in prostate cancer care. By empowering radiologists with AI, we can help ensure more men are diagnosed earlier, when their chances of survival are highest.'
Screening could cut deaths by 40 per cent
The findings come as The Telegraph launches a campaign calling for the introduction of targeted screening for prostate cancer.
Currently, men are not offered tests, even if they have a family history of the disease.
Experts believe there is a growing case for targeted screening, meaning that PSA blood tests would be offered to those at heightened risk of the disease.
Even though prostate cancer is the most-common male cancer in the UK, it is the only major cancer with no screening programme.
The UK National Screening Committee (UKNSC) is currently considering whether to recommend the rollout of testing.
In the past, it has rejected the idea because of concern that PSA tests are too unreliable, and would result in too many men undergoing needless procedures.
In recent years, however, the back-up technology used to confirm a diagnosis has significantly improved, with hopes that further advances being tested, could mean that in the future, screening could cut deaths by 40 per cent.
Prof Shonit Punwani, Professor of magnetic resonance and cancer imaging and consultant radiologist at UCLH, said: 'Initial studies have shown that the tool helps radiologists to enhance their diagnostic accuracy through identifying subtle early stage lesions that are sometimes not obvious on scans.
'Ultimately, QP-Prostate aims to improve patient outcomes by assisting radiologists in creating more accurate and reliable MRI reports.'