Submitted by A.S. Quenault on Wed, 22/01/2025 - 16:27
Doctors could soon be able to predict your individual chances of getting cancer and offer personalised detection and prevention, thanks to a new research project. Today, Cancer Research UK, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) are announcing £10 million to create the Cancer Data-Driven Detection programme.
The programme aims to access and link data from different sources - including health records, genomics, family history, demographics, and behavioural data - to develop advanced statistical models that help scientists accurately predict who is most likely to get cancer. Alongside this, the programme will develop powerful new tools which use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to analyse the data and calculate an individual’s risk of cancer throughout their lifetime.
Over the next five years, the funding will build the infrastructure required to access and link these datasets, train new data scientists, create the algorithms behind the risk models and evaluate the algorithms and AI tools to ensure that they are giving accurate and clinically useful information about cancer risk. The scientific programme will be guided by partnerships with cancer patients, the public, clinical experts and industry, while addressing ethical and legal considerations to ensure that the models and tools work well in practice.
The models generated from this research could be used to help people at higher risk of cancer in different ways. For example, the NHS could offer more frequent cancer screening sessions or screening at a younger age to those at higher risk, whilst those at lower risk could be spared unnecessary tests. People identified as higher risk could also be sent for cancer testing faster when they go to their GP with possible cancer signs or symptoms. Individuals at higher risk could also access different ways to prevent cancer.
Researchers from the MRC Biostatistics Unit (BSU), Dr Oscar Rueda and Prof Sach Mukherjee, are Co-Investigators on this ground-breaking programme. They will provide expertise in AI and Machine Learning (ML) methods development and analysis, to identify and integrate information from multimodal and complementary data which will enable multifactorial early detection and prevention of cancer.
Oscar Rueda, Programme Leader at the BSU and Co-Investigator, said:
“This is a fantastic opportunity to progress towards developing state of the art statistical and machine learning models that can make an impact on public health. This programme will feature some of the biggest experts in the field of cancer risk, and it will be amazing to share ideas and work together on the development of individualised risk models.”
Sach Mukherjee, also Programme Leader and Co-Investigator, said:
“We’re incredibly excited about being part of this programme, to understand how AI can help to leverage large and heterogeneous data to advance the early detection and prevention of cancer. The Cancer Data-Driven Detection programme involves a stellar team of experts spanning the many relevant fields and we are delighted to be able to contribute our expertise in AI and ML.”
Earlier diagnosis of cancer saves lives. Yet according to analysis of NHS figures by Cancer Research UK, only 54.4% of cancers in England are diagnosed at stages one and two*, where treatment is more likely to be successful. NHS England has set a target to diagnose 75% of cancers at stages one and two by 2028, and this will only be achieved with research and embracing new technologies to catch cancer earlier.
The Cancer Data Driven Detection programme is jointly supported by Cancer Research UK, the National Institute for Health & Care Research, the Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council, Health Data Research UK, and Administrative Data Research UK.