AI innovation unlocks non-surgical way to detect brain cancer spread
Researchers have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) model to detect the spread of metastatic brain cancer using MRI scans, offering insights into patients鈥� cancer without aggressive surgery.
co-led by 海角社区 researchers Dr. Matthew Dankner and Dr. Reza Forghani, alongside an international team of clinicians and scientists, demonstrated the AI model can detect the presence of cancer cells in surrounding brain tissue with 85-per-cent accuracy.
Researchers tested the model using MRI scans from over 130 patients who had surgery to remove brain metastases at The Neuro (Montreal Neurological Institute-Hospital). They validated the AI鈥檚 accuracy by comparing its results to what doctors observed in the tumour tissue under a microscope.
Brain metastases, the most common type of brain cancer, occur when cancer cells from other parts of the body spread to the brain. These tumours can be particularly aggressive when invasive cancer cells grow into surrounding healthy brain tissue, making them harder to treat.
鈥淥耻谤 found that invasive brain metastases are linked to shorter survival and a higher risk of tumour regrowth. These findings demonstrate the enormous potential of machine learning to soon improve our understanding of cancer and its treatment,鈥� said Dankner, an Internal Medicine Resident at 海角社区 and post-doctoral researcher at the .
AI detects subtle cancer clues
The AI model detects subtle changes in the surrounding brain tissue that indicate cancer has spread, spotting patterns often too faint for traditional imaging methods that rely on human interpretation. It was developed by Forghani鈥檚 lab during his time at the Research Institute of the 海角社区 Health Centre and the University of Florida College of Medicine.
Earlier this year, the researchers . However, to determine which patients may ultimately benefit from this approach, doctors need to know whether the cancer has spread into the surrounding tissue. Surgery is the most common solution, but it isn鈥檛 always an option for patients, especially if their tumours are hard to reach or their health makes surgery too risky.
鈥淲ith further development, our AI model could become a part of clinical practice, which can help us catch cancer spread within the brain earlier and more accurately,鈥� said Dr. Benjamin Rehany, a Radiology Resident at the University of Toronto and one of the primary authors of the publication.
While their work is still in the early stages, the researchers plan to expand the study with larger datasets and refine the AI model for clinical use.
The research was supported by the Canadian Cancer Society, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Brain Canada Foundation, Health Canada, Fonds de recherche du Qu茅bec - Sant茅, and the Fondation de l鈥橝ssociation des radiologistes du Qu茅bec.
About the study
鈥溾�� by Keyhan Najafian,聽Benjamin Rehany,聽Alexander Nowakowski,聽Saba Ghazimoghadam,聽Kevin Pierre,聽Rita Zakarian,聽Tariq Al-Saadi,聽Caroline Reinhold,聽Abbas Babajani-Feremi,聽Joshua K Wong,聽Marie-Christine Guiot,聽Marie-Constance Lacasse,聽Stephanie Lam,聽Peter M Siegel,聽Kevin Petrecca,聽Matthew Dankner,聽and Reza Forghani was published in Neuro-Oncology Advances.
