Being able to quickly and accurately measure the volume of mesothelioma tumors is important for determining whether a treatment is working, as well as in the laboratory as new protocols are being developed. Because mesothelioma tumors are so irregular this measurement is challenging and time consuming, but a team of researchers from the United Kingdom has developed an Artificial Intelligence tool that does the work quickly and accurately.
Convolutional Neural Network Tool Measures Mesothelioma Tumors
A research team from the Institute of Cancer Sciences at the University of Glasgow in Glasgow, United Kingdom, set out to determine whether an artificial intelligence system could be trained to accurately measure mesothelioma tumor volume using CT images without any human input. The system, called a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) tool, would minimize reliance on human measurement, which is extremely time consuming because the tumors are so complex.
Though previous testing has proven that CNNs are well suited to this type of task, the Glasgow study was the largest conducted specifically on measuring mesothelioma. Measuring mesothelioma tumors is a challenge because of their complex morphology. Because they don’t grow in a spherical manner as other tumors do, six different tumor measurements need to be taken, from a variety of positions both prior to treatment and again after in order to gauge treatment response.
AI Can Be Trained to Measure Mesothelioma Tumors
The researchers found they were able to train the CNN to accurately segment and measure tumor volume in malignant pleural mesothelioma without human input. CNN was used to measure CT scans from 30 patients that each had both pre-chemotherapy and post-chemotherapy scans. It was found to be highly accurate, with a mean difference between AI and human analysis that was “not significantly different to zero.”
Where measurement errors occurred, the mesothelioma tumors had specific features that made their analysis more complex. The researchers noted that “CNN performance can be further improved by enriching future training sets for these features.” They concluded that the tool is a “potentially important clinical development” that “could improve clinical decision making, by enabling practical deployment of volumetric tumor measurements for the first time, allowing earlier cessation of toxic treatment, and enhancing clinical trials by increasing statistical power and reducing costs.”
If you or someone you love has been diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma, the development of innovative tools like these promise improved treatment in the future. Contact the Patient Advocates at Mesothelioma.net today at 1-800-692-8608 for access to more important resources.
