AI used in liver cancer treatment at Addenbrooke's Hospital

Addenbrooke's in Cambridge is the first NHS hospital to use an AI-enhanced treatment to destroy tumours.

The treatment, known as thermal ablation, requires a superhot needle to pinpoint and destroy life-threatening tumours in one go, including hard-to-reach cancers.

The target area is mapped in advance, but gases and blood can make this process difficult, and sometimes the more hard-to-find tumours are only partially treated. 

This can lead to the tumour coming back, which is often not detected until post-treatment scans. 

When this happens, a patient may need to go through the process again.

However, doctors at Addenbrooke's say using AI to train computers to do the mapping makes the treatment quicker, more accurate and less invasive for the patient.

Addenbrooke's Consultant Interventional Radiologist Dr Nadeem Shaida:

"Combining the precision of AI and thermal ablation means hard-to-reach or very small tumours can be more easily and effectively treated without the need for repeat treatments. 

"This means we can treat more patients and save and improve more lives. 

"We are really grateful to ACT for making us the first NHS hospital to be able to offer this AI-enhanced treatment."

The hospital's charity, Addenbrooke's Charitable Trust, bought the £250,000 thermal ablation machine following a two-year pilot involving 50 patients with liver cancer. 

Less than half of those treated during the pilot needed further treatment. 

The hospital is now looking at how this treatment can be expanded to kidney and other cancer patients.