MOSCOW, September 14, Salma Sultanova.The VI International Forum of Oncology and Radiotherapy “For Life — For Life” is taking place in Moscow. Participants spoke about the latest achievements in the field of artificial intelligence in cancer therapy, and also shared their experience of remote treatment of patients.
Artificial intelligence in diagnostics
According to scientific data, cervical cancer (CC) is the leading cause of death in women aged 30 to 39 years. In Russia, it accounts for five percent of all cancers, and is the second most common diagnosis in women aged 30-59 years after breast tumors. Experts from the World Health Organization predict that by 2030, the number of cases of this type of cancer will increase by 19 percent, and mortality by 22.
According to Natalia Bayandina, a laboratory diagnostics doctor at the National Medical Research Center (NMRC) of Radiology of the Russian Ministry of Health, several factors hinder the high-quality diagnosis of cervical cancer in the country. These are non-compliance with the periodicity and frequency of medical examinations, a shortage of equipment and personnel, mainly cytologists and gynecologists, increased medical workload, the receipt of unsuitable material for research, as well as poor control over screening. Cytological screening is a microscopic examination of scrapings from the cervix and cervical canal using traditional or liquid cytology. Bayandina and her colleagues tried to determine whether it is possible to use digital and telemedicine technologies in the diagnosis of cancer, precancerous and background diseases of the cervix. Scientists compared the methods of traditional, liquid-based, digital cytology (when liquid smears are digitized for analysis) and automated analysis of digital preparations (machine analysis of cells from digitized smears — the same digital cytology, but using artificial intelligence). The following indicators were taken into account: the quality of the studied material according to the BETHESDA system, the distinguishability of cells in the preparation, the detectability of pathology, the features of the cytogram, the identity of the morphology, the time spent on the study.
To do this, cytologists studied scrapings from hundreds of women aged 20 to 65 years. The majority suffered from inflammatory diseases, atrophic colpitis, cervical leukoplakia, cervical canal polyp, cervical erosion and dysplasia, as well as other diseases.
The results showed that AI was better at identifying pathology in 26 percent of cases, and also did it in times faster: diagnostics took from two to eight minutes.
Non-contact diagnosis of melanoma
Yulia Loginova, assistant of the Department of Oncology of Samara State Medical University, spoke at the forum with the results of research in the field of non-invasive diagnosis of skin tumors.
Melanoma is a unique tumor characterized by a variety of clinical manifestations. Incorrect diagnosis often leads to incorrect treatment, which causes tumor growth.
“Every year in Russia, more than four thousand people are diagnosed with melanoma of the skin. The goal of our research is to reduce mortality from this type of cancer by increasing rates of active and early diagnosis, developing new approaches to clarifying diagnostics, and also improving the quality of detection of malignant skin tumors,” — the expert emphasized.
Most melanomas have characteristic signs by which the disease is identified during visual examination — the ABCDE rule. However, this does not always guarantee that the diagnosis was made correctly. Today, melanoma is detected using dermatoscopy (epiluminescent microscopy) and fluorescent diagnostics. This can only be done on the basis of large specialized centers with the participation of trained specialists and the availability of expensive reagents.
Samara doctors decided to test whether it would be possible to increase the effectiveness of early diagnosis of melanoma using new optical methods. For this purpose, the samples were studied by Raman spectroscopy ex vivo and in vivo. By adjusting the preliminary indicators of sensitivity and specificity, it was possible to increase the diagnostic accuracy in studies of skin tumors by five to ten percent compared to other methods. It is important to note: since the diameter of the laser beam spot of a Raman spectrometer does not exceed two millimeters, the method works well even on very small tumors.
Online treatment
The forum paid a lot of attention development of telemedicine in Russia. This is a type of medical service when consultations with doctors take place remotely.
“This type of treatment is relevant in cases where the patient does not have the opportunity to get to the hospital on his own or the disease does not require the personal presence of a doctor. Telemedicine is also used when hospitals are overloaded, or when consultation with several specialists is necessary,” noted the head of the information and service service of the National Medical Research Center of Oncology named after N.N. Petrov Anna Malkova. Here, remote doctor-patient consultations have been provided since 2020. The system gained particular popularity during the pandemic.
A person can submit a request for an online consultation in his personal account on the center’s website. It is integrated with the government services portal. After this, a patient record is created in the medical electronic system. Scans of documents and examination results, including CT and MRI, are loaded into it, which the doctor can review. At the initial visit, the effectiveness of diagnostic and treatment measures is assessed. If you repeat, you can talk remotely with the doctor. The official conclusion will come within five working days after the consultation, also in your personal account.
It happens that it is necessary to perform molecular genetic or pathological-morphological studies. In such a situation, it is also not necessary to go to a medical facility — you can use courier delivery. The patient fills out a request through his personal account, collects the necessary material and transfers it to the courier. On the basis of the laboratories of the National Medical Research Center of Oncology named after N. N. Petrov, pathomorphological, immunohistochemical and molecular genetic studies can be performed for compulsory medical insurance. Tests are accepted from all cities of Russia. The results come to your personal account. A total of 398 people completed online consultations this year.