Evaluation of AI software for diagnosing prostate cancer expanded

The evaluation of a new artificial intelligence (AI) diagnostic system that could help improve diagnosis of prostate cancer has been expanded to three NHS trusts.

As well as Oxford University Hospitals (OUH) NHS Foundation Trust, which began its evaluation of the software last year, North Bristol NHS Trust, and University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW) NHS Trust are now also evaluating the use of AI in the prostate cancer pathway, by deploying a computer-assisted diagnostic system called Paige Prostate Suite in the live clinical workflow across their hospital sites.

The exercise is part of the ARTICULATE PRO study, based at the University of Oxford's Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences.

Each hospital involved in the trial uses different digital pathology scanners and information systems and serves distinct patient populations, but are all adding Paige's AI applications to their standard of care to determine the potential to improve patient outcomes against a background of rising instances of prostate cancer.

The Paige Prostate Suite is a diagnostic AI system comprised of three AI applications designed to help pathologists detect, grade and measure tumours in prostate biopsies and tissue samples.

Pathologists at these three hospital trusts are assessing how Paige Prostate Suite impacts their clinical decision-making, pathology service delivery and use of resources in a real-world setting. With this use across multiple hospitals, pathologists can assess the ways Paige's AI technology can best serve patients, histopathologists, and hospital systems for prostate cancer diagnosis.

This development is the latest achievement of the ARTICULATE PRO study, funded by the Accelerated Access Collaborative (AAC) Artificial Intelligence in Health and Care Award, overseen by the Department of Health and Social Care.

"The central focus of ARTICULATE PRO is patients. We are striving towards our goal to safely and effectively ensure they benefit the most from powerful AI technology," said Professor Clare Verrill, OUH Cellular Pathology Consultant and Principal Investigator of ARTICULATE PRO. "With the multisite live use of The Paige Prostate Suite, we can systematically study benefits to patients in clinical settings."

Dr Jon Oxley, uropathologist and Bristol lead of ARTICULATE PRO, added, "I have studied the disease and progression of prostate cancer in clinical research for over 25 years, it is a significant advancement that Paige's AI system has achieved a level of validation and performance that allows safe and effective live clinical use. Using this system alongside our standard of care has the promise to increase efficiency and improve reproducibility of results for patients."

Dr Bidisa Sinha, uropathologist at UHCW, added, "We believe AI can help to improve the accuracy and consistency of grading cancer and assist in detection of small areas of cancer which are easy to miss. This is world-leading research being carried out at UHCW. We are proud to be a global leader in the field of digital and computational pathology."

Pictured: Professor Clare Verrill uses the new AI pathology software