Friday, 25 June 2021
A new artificial intelligence software that will help doctors to make quicker and more accurate decisions when diagnosing potentially cancerous lung legions, has received major government funding.
This is a step towards bringing the benefits of earlier diagnosis of lung cancer, the leading source of cancer death, to all patients across the National Health Service
The lung cancer predication AI software, Virtual Nodule Clinic (VNC), which has been developed by Optellum (Oxford, UK), will examine lung nodules to determine whether they are benign or malignant. The pioneering AI solution has been shown to outperform existing methods to predict malignancy in nodules in a multi-center study conducted by Nottingham, Oxford and Leeds clinicians with results published in BMJ Thorax last year.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in the UK, accounting for 21% of all cancer deaths in any one year. When diagnosed at an early stage, almost 57% of people in the UK with lung cancer will survive their disease for five years or more, compared with only 3% when the disease is the latest stage. Currently, around three-quarters of lung cancer cases are diagnosed at a late stage in the UK, although the survival rate for small tumours treated at Stage IA is up to 90%.
Waiting lists are a problem for the NHS even at the best of times and due to the pandemic, researchers have estimated between 1,235 and 1,372 additional deaths in lung cancer due to diagnostic delays.
DOLCE is a landmark research project led by Professor David Baldwin, Honorary Professor of Medicine at the University of Nottingham, and Consultant Physician at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust. It will show how many CT scans, expensive PET scans and biopsies are saved by the Optellum software and how much faster the diagnosis of cancer is confirmed. If the utility and safety are confirmed, the solution could be implemented nationally with fewer harms to patients, reduced anxiety for patients waiting for tests and substantial savings in precious radiology resources.
The project is part of the NHS AI Lab’s £140million AI in Health and Care Award. The AI in Health and Care Award aims to accelerate the testing and evaluation of AI in the NHS so patients can benefit from faster and more personalised diagnosis and greater efficiency in screening services.
The NHS AI Lab is led by NHSX and delivered in partnership with the Accelerated Access Collaborative (AAC) and National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).
The Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock, announced this latest award last week, which will see 38 projects awarded a share of £36million to test state of the art AI technology.
We are delighted to receive this award. This technology is truly transformative and we have previously shown that this software can help us to safely discharge more people with pulmonary nodules earlier, reducing anxiety amongst patients waiting for repeat scans and also the need for potentially harmful tests. This is also very important to the NHS because it will reduce the pressure on radiology resources. "
“In this latest study - DOLCE, we aim to confirm the findings shown by three previous published studies so clinicians will be able to confidently improve patient care beyond current practice. It is also about earlier identification of the relatively small number of cancers, which will be tested and again may change practice and bring forward diagnosis of lung cancer to improve survival and mortality.”
The team at Optellum and Professor Baldwin will now work with 10 leading NHS hospitals to deploy the technology for clinical evaluation, taking the solution one-step closer to being widely deployed to benefit patients across the entire country as a new standard of care.
Dr Vaclav Potesil, co-founder and CEO of Optellum, said: “We are delighted to be working in partnership with ten hospitals and leading experts across the NHS to continue to develop our lung cancer prediction software. It is already in clinical use and benefitting patients at leading hospitals in the United States. The NHSX award will help us accelerate bringing the AI-driven early diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer to all NHS patientsas soon as possible.”
Dr Indra Joshi, Director of AI, NHSX, said: “With this latest round of AI Award winners, we now have an incredible breadth of expertise across a wide range of clinical and operational areas. Through this award, X will be at the forefront of applying artificial intelligence in new ways to transform health and care.”
Partners working alongside Optellum and Nottingham are leading lung cancer experts across the NHS; Professor Fergus Gleeson of Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust; Professor Matthew Callister and Professor Andrew Scarsbrook of Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust; Dr. Richard Lee (co-ordinating Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and satellite sites); and Professor Sam Janes coordinating University College London Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and satellite sites.
Story credits
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Optellum
Optellum (Oxford, UK) is a commercial-stage lung health company providing Artificial Intelligence decision support software that assists physicians in early diagnosis and optimal treatment for their patients. The company was founded so that every lung disease patient is diagnosed and treated at the earliest possible stage when chances of cure are the highest. www.optellum.com
NHSX
NHSX is a joint unit of teams from the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England and Improvement, driving forward the digital transformation of health and social care. www.nhsx.nhs.uk
The Accelerated Access Collaborative
The Accelerated Access Collaborative (AAC) is a unique partnership between patient groups, government bodies, industry and NHS bodies, working together to streamline the adoption of new innovations in healthcare. www.england.nhs.uk/aac
The National Institute for Health and Research
The National Institute for Health and Research (NIHR) provides the people, facilities, and technology that enable research to thrive. www.nihr.ac.uk
Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust
Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust is one of the biggest and busiest acute hospitals in England, employing more than 16,500 staff. We provide care to over 2.5million residents of Nottingham and its surrounding communities and specialist services to a further 3-4million people from neighbouring counties.
The Trust has three main sites:
· Queen’s Medical Centre (QMC) – where our Emergency Department (A&E) major trauma centre and Nottingham Children’s Hospital are located. The QMC is also home to The University of Nottingham’s School of Nursing and Medical School. In July 2019, NUH took over the running of the Nottingham Treatment Centre, which is based on the QMC site.
· Nottingham City Hospital – where our cancer centre, heart centre and stroke services are based, and where we focus on planned care and the care of patients with long-term conditions. This site also supports our urgent and emergency care pathway
· Ropewalk House – where we provide a range of outpatient services, including hearing services
We have national and international reputations for specialist services such as stroke, renal, spinal, breast, neurosciences, cancer services and trauma.
The Trust’s annual turnover is just under £1billion. We have approximately 1,700 beds (90 wards).
We are are the forefront of many research programmes and new surgical procedures.
In partnership with The University of Nottingham we host the NIHR Nottingham Biomedical Research Centre carrying out vital research into hearing, digestive, respiratory and musculoskeletal diseases, mental health & technology and imaging.
As a teaching trust we have a strong relationship with The University of Nottingham and other universities across the East Midlands, playing an important role in the education and training of doctors, nurses other healthcare professionals.
Experts from NUH are leading the important work is in the NHS to establish appropriate sponsorship and project management of the National facility at the National Defence and Rehabilitation Centre at Stanford Hall, a facility which has potential to very significantly improve inpatient rehabilitation services and clinical outcomes for patients in Nottingham and across the East Midlands
We are part of the London 2012 Olympic legacy and offer services at the National Centre for Sport and Exercise Medicine - East Midlands, based at Loughborough University.
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Notes to editors:
About the University of Nottingham
Ranked 32 in Europe and 16th in the UK by the QS World University Rankings: Europe 2024, the University of Nottingham is a founding member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universities. Studying at the University of Nottingham is a life-changing experience, and we pride ourselves on unlocking the potential of our students. We have a pioneering spirit, expressed in the vision of our founder Sir Jesse Boot, which has seen us lead the way in establishing campuses in China and Malaysia - part of a globally connected network of education, research and industrial engagement.
Nottingham was crowned Sports University of the Year by The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2024 – the third time it has been given the honour since 2018 – and by the Daily Mail University Guide 2024.
The university is among the best universities in the UK for the strength of our research, positioned seventh for research power in the UK according to REF 2021. The birthplace of discoveries such as MRI and ibuprofen, our innovations transform lives and tackle global problems such as sustainable food supplies, ending modern slavery, developing greener transport, and reducing reliance on fossil fuels.
The university is a major employer and industry partner - locally and globally - and our graduates are the second most targeted by the UK's top employers, according to The Graduate Market in 2022 report by High Fliers Research.
We lead the Universities for Nottingham initiative, in partnership with Nottingham Trent University, a pioneering collaboration between the city’s two world-class institutions to improve levels of prosperity, opportunity, sustainability, health and wellbeing for residents in the city and region we are proud to call home.
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