Every day, the NHS performs approximately 133,000 radiology scans on cancer patients. Each of these scans needs to be interpreted as swiftly as possible, to detect the precise location of a patient’s tumour and plan the best way of directing treatment towards the cancerous cells while minimising damage to the surrounding healthy tissue.
Days, hours and minutes are critical when it comes to administering treatment, but artificial intelligence (AI) may soon be able to provide an invaluable helping hand, thanks in part to research funded by Cancer Research UK. From automating the analysis of radiology scans to pinpointing patterns in tumour DNA which could reveal new causes of cancer, machine learning algorithms will have a major role to play in all elements of cancer care.
