Google DeepMind to Explore Streamlining Radiotherapy Planning

A collaboration between Google DeepMind (London, United Kingdom) and England’s National Health Service (NHS, London) will evaluate the potential for machine learning in making radiotherapy (RT) planning more efficient.

The collaboration will be through a partnership with University College London Hospital (UCLH; United Kingdom), and will involve analysis of many as 700 former head and neck cancer patients, with the hope that artificial intelligence (AI) machine learning could decrease segmentation process time from four hours to just one. According to DeepMind, the project could also lead to the development of a RT segmentation algorithm with potential applications beyond head and neck cancers.


“Developing machine learning which can automatically differentiate between cancerous and healthy tissue on radiotherapy scans will assist clinicians in planning radiotherapy treatment,” said Yen-Ching Chang, MD, clinical lead for radiotherapy at UCLH. “This has the potential to free up clinicians to spend even more time on patient care, education and research, all of which would be to the benefit of our patients and the populations we serve.”

“This real-world application of artificial intelligence technology is exactly why we set up DeepMind. We’re incredibly excited to be working with the radiotherapy team at UCLH to explore how AI can help to reduce the time it takes to plan radiotherapy treatment for head and neck cancer patients,” said Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder and head of applied AI at Google DeepMind. “We hope this work could lead to real benefits for cancer patients across the country and for the clinicians who treat them.”

DeepMind is a AI company founded in September 2010 which created a neural network that can able to access an external memory like a conventional Turing machine, resulting in a computer that mimics the short-term memory of the human brain; it was acquired by Google in 2014. In July 2016, Google DeepMind partnered with Moorfields Eye Hospital (London, United Kingdom) in a project designed to use AI for the early detection and treatment of preventable eye diseases by analyzing retinal scans.

Related Links:
Google DeepMind
National Health Service
University College London Hospital