A new way of using artificial intelligence to predict cancer from patient data without putting personal information at risk has been developed by a team including University of Leeds medical scientists.

Artificial intelligence (AI) can analyse large amounts of data, such as images or trial results, and can identify patterns often undetectable by humans, making it highly valuable in speeding up disease detection, diagnosis and treatment. [1]

Figure 1. Using AI to detect cancer from patient data securely

Figure 1 shows however, using the technology in medical settings is controversial because of the risk of accidental data release and many systems are owned and controlled by private companies, giving them access to confidential patient data — and the responsibility for protecting it.

By undertaking this several times, the algorithm can be improved and one created that works on all the data sets. This means that the technique can be applied without the need for any data to be released to third party companies or to be sent between hospitals or across international borders. [2]

The team trained AI algorithms on study data from three groups of patients from Northern Ireland, Germany, and the U.S. The algorithms were tested on two large sets of data images generated at Leeds, and were found to have successfully learned how to predict the presence of different sub types of cancer in the images. [4]

The research was led by Jakob Nikolas Kather, Visiting Associate Professor at the University of Leeds' School of Medicine and Researcher at the University Hospital RWTH Aachen. The team included Professors Heike Grabsch and Phil Quirke, and Dr Nick West from the University of Leeds' School of Medicine.

Phil Quirke, Professor of Pathology in the University of Leeds's School of Medicine, said: "We have shown that swarm learning can be used in medicine to train independent AI algorithms for any image analysis task. This means it is possible to overcome the need for data transfer without institutions having to relinquish secure control of their data."Creating an AI system which can perform this task improves our ability to apply AI in the future." [3]

References:

1. https://vervetimes.com/using-ai-to-detect-cancer-from-patient-data-securely-sciencedaily/
2. https://techiai.com/using-ai-to-detect-cancer-from-patient-data-securely/
3. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/04/220425121049.htm
4. https://www.insideprecisionmedicine.com/topics/oncology/novel-ai-technique-developed-to-detect-cancer-from-patient-data-securely/

Cite this article:

Thanusri swetha J (2022), Using AI to detect cancer from patient data securely, Anatechmaz, p.p 100