Artificial intelligence could be used to review – and possibly one day even make – cancer diagnoses if a team of WA researchers, led by PathWest anatomical pathologist Jeremy Parry, is successful in training a specialised computer to detect abnormalities in lymph nodes.
The bold new project, which featured on Channel 7 News (external site) is one of 10 local research projects awarded funding in the latest round of the Department of Health-funded Research Translation Projects (RTP).
Dr Parry and his co-researchers will take a computer capable of “deep learning” and teach it to detect changes in lymph nodes that may or may not be malignant. With later refinements, the computer could potentially discern malignant from benign changes.
The research team, which includes experts in artificial intelligence from Murdoch University’s College of Science, Health, Engineering and Education will “teach” the computer using digitised whole-slide scans of lymph node tissue collected from Western Australian patient samples.
Dr Parry hopes that through the process of deep learning – in which the computer learns to recognise patterns within data it has already analysed – the computer might eventually be able to detect nuanced early indicators of cancer.
Dr Parry’s says the aim of his project is not to replace pathologists in analysing samples, but to assist in the review and validation of their findings.
In a second part of the project, Dr Parry and his team will assess the value of using digitised whole-slide scans of tissue samples across the WA health system.
The present system for examining tissue samples involves putting them on glass slides so that they can be viewed under a microscope.
“If we need a second opinion we must physically transport the slide to wherever the person is, which could be at another hospital – or even in another state,” Dr Parry explained.
“However if we take the sample on the slide and then scan it using our digital whole-slide pathology scanner, we have access to an image that we can send anywhere in the world and which can be viewed instantaneously.”
Dr Parry says that digitisation would add an extra step to the processing of these samples, but has potential benefits which include improved flexibility for information sharing, reduced time and cost of transporting slides and improved storage and preservation of images.
The RTP program, now in its twelfth year, is designed to encourage research and the translation of research outcomes into effective healthcare policy and practice.
The RTP program highlights how research can improve patient outcomes yet at the same time enhance efficiency and cost effectiveness in the public health system.
The full list of RTP 2018 recipients are: