AI tech used to spot abnormalities which could lead to bowel cancer is set to stay after a research study showed its value.
South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust and Newcastle University led the COLO-DETECT trial of the GI Genius device.
It is a computer module powered by AI which is added to the existing technology used during a colonoscopy. A colonoscopy is a procedure where a camera is used to look inside the bowel, with the aim of spotting cancerous and precancerous polyps (called adenomas).
The device then puts a green box around possible polyps on the screen which shows what the camera can see. The clinician then decides whether to remove the polyp.
COLO-DETECT was a randomised controlled trial where half of the participants had colonoscopy using AI and half had ‘traditional’ colonoscopy. It involved a total of over 2,000 patients from 10 centres across England.
Using the AI during a colonoscopy showed it improves the detection of adenomas.
When using AI, the study found that the device detected an extra 0.36 adenomas during each colonoscopy. This is a big difference when compared to other methods which have been used to try and improve the detection rate.
It also identified at least one adenoma in an extra eight out of every 100 people having a colonoscopy.
COLO-DETECT is part of COLO-SPEED, which is run from the North East of England and is the largest bowel cancer research groups globally.
Professor Colin Rees led the trial and is a consultant gastroenterologist at South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust, said: "We are delighted with the outcome of this trial. Simply put, it will save lives."
He continued: "This trial has demonstrated that using artificial intelligence can significantly increase detection of the kind of abnormalities in the bowel that may progress to cancer.
"We are able to find these lesions, remove them and stop these lesions turning into cancer.
"Crucially, we know that some of the polyps that lead to cancer are small polyps or flat polyps. The AI helped us find more of these lesions, the ones which are more likely to be missed with the human eye."
There are 43,000 new cases of bowel cancer in the UK each year, and 16,000 people die each year.
"We now use this technology routinely in our practice and I really hope that it will be used more widely," Rees said.
"The fantastic thing about using AI is that it learns. It is trained by looking at images. It uses the data to find the differences between the images.
"It’s adding to its knowledge all the time, so it’s only going to get better."
Other findings of the trial were that more smaller polyps and more flat polyps were found when the kit was used than when it was not.
The addition of the technology added on average just 90 seconds to each colonoscopy.
