UK launches AI cancer detection platform

UK – The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust has launched a major new effort to improve cancer detection using artificial intelligence.

In partnership with NTT Data Group and CARPL.ai, the UK-based cancer centre is developing the country’s first large-scale AI radiology platform, with a focus on cancer research.

This new service will test and refine AI models that analyse medical images to help detect cancer earlier and more accurately.

The goal is to improve diagnosis, speed up treatment, and boost survival rates for patients with cancers such as sarcoma, lung, breast, brain, and prostate.

The project is funded by a three-year grant from the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).

It will support research at The Royal Marsden Hospital and the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR). Once fully operational, the platform will enable researchers to test various AI tools and assess how they can support doctors in making more informed, faster decisions.

The new service runs on an advanced Machine Learning Operations (MLOps) platform built by NTT Data. It includes CARPL.ai’s system, which already supports a wide range of AI models used in radiology.

The Royal Marsden is also home to the Radiology and Artificial Intelligence Research Hub, backed by The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity.

The hub leads several projects, including the use of AI to diagnose and treat sarcomas (RADSARC-R) and breast cancer (AI-BRACE).

Professor Dow-Mu Koh, a leading radiologist at The Royal Marsden, believes the platform will be a game-changer.

“AI has huge potential to help doctors detect and treat cancer earlier and more precisely,” he said. “This partnership allows us to study AI safely, and it could one day change the way we diagnose and treat cancer across the NHS.”