Researcher Nikita Shvetsov has developed an AI system that can contribute to less costly examinations and more personalised cancer treatment.
Image:
Petter Bjørklund, SFI Visual Intelligence

Researcher Nikita Shvetsov has developed an AI system that can contribute to less costly examinations and more personalised cancer treatment.

ScienceNorway: This is how AI can contribute to faster treatment of lung cancer

Researchers have developed an artificial intelligence to map specific immune cells in lung cancer tumors. It can lead to less costly examinations and more personalised cancer treatment (English news story on sciencenorway.no).

ScienceNorway: This is how AI can contribute to faster treatment of lung cancer

Researchers have developed an artificial intelligence to map specific immune cells in lung cancer tumors. It can lead to less costly examinations and more personalised cancer treatment (English news story on sciencenorway.no).

By Petter Bjørklund, Communications Advisor at SFI Visual Intelligence

Lung cancer is one of the most widespread and deadly types of cancer in the world. In 2023, 3,319 Norwegians were diagnosed with lung cancer.

When the immune system detects cancer inside the lungs, it responds by sending out a group of immune cells. They attack the malignant cells in the tumour.

These immune cells are called tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL). They are an integral part of the body's battle against lung cancer. TIL cells can reveal how the cancer will develop. They can also indicate which treatment will work best.

Because of this, doctors examine tissue samples from the lungs under a microscrope. They map the TIL cells inside the tumour. The more cells they find, the better the prognosis.

"The goal is not to replace healthcare professionals with automated machines. Our aim is to make their lives a little easier,” says researcher Nikita Shvetsov. Photo: Petter Bjørklund, SFI Visual Intelligence.

The problem is that these examinations are very costly and time-consuming. The amount of TIL cells in the tissue samples may also be interpreted differently from doctor to doctor.

Researchers have now developed artificial intelligence (AI) that can make this task simpler. The technology can provide several benefits for the healthcare system – from less costly examinations to faster and more personalised cancer treatment.

“We sought to examine how machine learning can simplify this task. Now we know that it works pretty well,” says researcher Nikita Shvetsov at UiT The Arctic University of Norway. There, he participates in a Machine Learning Group and the AI centre SFI Visual Intelligence.

His research was recently published in Journal of Pathology Informatics.

Read the entire news story in English or Norwegian:

Sciencenorway.no (English text)

Forskning.no (Norwegian text)

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