UK hospitals begin live trial of prostate cancer-detecting AI

Three hospital systems across England have begun a live clinical trial of AI technology designed to detect and grade prostate cancer. The study – known as ARTICULATE PRO – is being led by the University of Oxford in collaboration with Paige, a pioneer in clinical AI applications for cancer diagnosis.

The participating hospitals – North Bristol Trust Southmead Hospital, University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire, and Oxford University NHS Foundation Trust – are now incorporating Paige’s AI technology into their standard of care. This multisite trial aims to evaluate the potential of AI to improve patient outcomes against a backdrop of rising prostate cancer cases.

Professor Clare Verrill, OUH Cellular Pathology Consultant, Associate Professor and Principal Investigator of ARTICULATE PRO, said “The central focus of ARTICULATE PRO is patients. We are striving towards our goal to safely and effectively ensure they benefit the most from powerful AI technology.

“With the multisite live use of The Paige Prostate Suite, we can systematically study benefits to patients in clinical settings.”

The Prostate Suite – the AI system being trialled – is designed to assist pathologists in detecting, grading, and measuring tumours in prostate biopsies and tissue samples. Pathologists at the three hospitals are assessing how this AI technology impacts their clinical decision-making, pathology service delivery, and resource utilisation in real-world settings.

Dr Jon Oxley, Uropathologist and Bristol lead of ARTICULATE PRO, commented: “I have studied the disease and progression of prostate cancer in clinical research for over 25 years, it is a significant advancement that Paige’s AI applications have achieved a level of validation and performance that allows safe and effective live clinical use.

“Using Paige Prostate Suite alongside our standard of care has the promise to increase efficiency and improve reproducibility of results for patients.”

The study is notable for its implementation across hospitals using different digital pathology scanners and information systems, serving distinct patient populations. This diversity allows for a comprehensive assessment of how Paige’s AI technology can best serve patients, histopathologists, and hospital systems in prostate cancer diagnosis.

Dr Bidisa Sinha, Uropathologist at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire, added: “We believe AI can help to improve the accuracy and consistency of grading cancer and assist in detection of small areas of cancer which are easy to miss.

“This is world-leading research being carried out at UHCW. We are proud to be a global leader in the field of digital and computational pathology.”

The ARTICULATE PRO study is funded by the Accelerated Access Collaborative (AAC) Artificial Intelligence in Health and Care Award, overseen by the Department of Health and Social Care.

As prostate cancer rates continue to rise, the integration of AI in diagnosis could potentially lead to earlier detection, more accurate grading, and ultimately improved patient outcomes. The results of this trial could pave the way for wider adoption of AI in cancer diagnosis across the UK and beyond.

(Image Credit: Paige)

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Tags: ai, articulate pro, artificial intelligence, cancer, health, healthcare, nhs, paige, prostate cancer, prostate suite