The University of Glasgow is set to play ‘a key role’ in a Pan-European consortium that wants to use AI to improve pancreatic cancer treatments.
According to the University, the project – called PANCAIM – will utilise ‘tools such as artificial intelligence, integrated genomics and medical imaging’, to ‘generate breakthrough knowledge’, ‘increase understanding of pancreatic cancer biology’ and ‘develop trusted, impactful AI applications for regular clinical use’.
The four-year project, funded by Horizon 2020, is a collaboration between universities, research centres, hospitals, and industry partners including:
- University of Glasgow
- Karolinska Institute
- Radboud University
- Spanish National Cancer Research Centre
- Oslo University Hospital
- Siemens
- SMEs Collective Minds Radiology
- The Hyve
- Amires (project manager).
The Scottish university will be one of the clinical partners of the consortium, with Dr David Chang from the Institute of Cancer Sciences and his team working in a number of areas, such as: contributing multi-omics datasets; defining the clinical relevance and the modelling of the AI algorithm in the management of patients; generating research AI algorithms in genomics, transcriptomics and digital pathology.
PANCAIM’s aim is to aid clinicians in providing ‘the right treatment to the right patients at the right time’, and to improve outcomes. It will combine clinical knowledge with AI experts, data collected by MedTech companies and 11 pan-European repositories featuring almost 6,000 patients.
Dr David Chang said of the project: “Pancreatic cancer is a devastating disease, with one of the lowest survival rates in all cancer types, and urgent novel treatment strategies are needed. Over the years, we have and are continuing to generate and accumulate large multi-omics datasets of genomics, transcriptomics, digital pathology and radiology.
“We now have the computer power and artificial intelligence algorithm to interrogate these data in a way we never did before, which will help better understand the disease and ultimately how to better treat it. I am very honoured to be part of this European Commission Horizon 2020 initiative, and we hope we can unleash the power of AI to find better treatments and management for our patients with pancreatic cancer.”
