The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre has partnered with a Canadian company called Limbus AI to trial and co-develop the world’s first commercial AI-based auto-contouring tool for a specialist cervical cancer treatment known as brachytherapy.
Brachytherapy is a type of radiotherapy that involves placing an intense radiation source inside or in close contact with tumour cells.
This makes it particularly well suited to treating tumours in the cervix but, although it’s very effective, some patients can find cervical brachytherapy uncomfortable. It involves lying flat for several hours with an applicator in place while treatment is planned and delivered.
Although AI-based tools that speed up this process are common in traditional radiotherapy, until now there has been nothing similar for cervix brachytherapy.
That’s why our clinical teams and physicists spotted this gap and approached Limbus AI to suggest collaborating on a solution.
They have worked together to develop and test the new tool which has been successfully trialled at The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre and other hospitals, and has just been launched commercially.
It works by recognising and automatically outlining important organs in the body on MRI scans. Every patient has their own unique treatment place to get radiation to the right place while protecting other organs and tissue.
‘Contouring’ is a key part of producing a patient’s treatment plan. It is traditionally done by a doctor who painstakingly goes through every slice of a MRI scan and outlines the critical body organs so they can be protected during treatment. This can take over an hour.
So far, the new AI-based contouring – which is then carefully checked and completed by clinicians – is saving around 13 minutes for each treatment plan, reducing the time patients spend with the applicator in place and freeing up staff to do something else.
Principal Clinical Scientist Rhydian Caines, who led the project, said: “As a clinical team we are keenly aware that brachytherapy can be a difficult experience for patients and were frustrated that we couldn’t find an auto-contouring solution for brachytherapy.
“It’s early days but we are encouraged by the early data and hope this will improve the cervix brachytherapy experience for our patients and those in lots of other cancer centres as well.”
Consultant Clinical Oncologist Dr Anthea Cree said: “It’s brilliant that this is now available for our patients. Obviously we still need to check it but it means we don’t have to do all the outlining from scratch. Rhydian and our Brachytherapy team are very innovative and it’s a privilege to work with such a forward-thinking team who are always looking at how we can improve things for our patients.”
