Artificial intelligence (AI) can help diagnose and cure prostate cancer better, two doctors said at an awareness programme on prostate cancer in the city recently.
AI can help machines read biopsies as well as a pathologist. In fact, there are lower chances of missing a cancer when a machine reads a biopsy.
AI-enabled machines can also diagnose how aggressive a cancer is and that helps intaking decisions on treatment, said Prokar Dasgupta, a consultant urologist at Guy’s Hospital, London. “AI can help machines read and interpret biopsy reports,” said Dasgupta.
“AI can tell how aggressive is the cancer, which is vital in taking decisions about how to treat it. There are cancers that are not going to harm a person. Doctors may want to wait and watch in case the cancer is not going to harm.”
He said that when humans read biopsy reports, there could be variations in interpretations. Chances of missing a cancer are lower when an AI-assisted machine reads a report because it has analysed an enormous amount of data.
AI can also help in the automation of certain aspects of surgery. It can also help train a future surgeon.
AI can also help analyse more numbers of reports in a day than a human being can do, said Amit Ghose, a consultant urologist and head of the urology department at the Apollo Multispeciality Hospitals.