Prostate cancer is a very common disease, and the second commonest cause of death from cancer for men in the UK. Diagnosing prostate cancer has recently changed to a pathway that requires a MRI scan to help find suspicious lesions within the prostate that can then be sampled using a needle (a biopsy). This has much improved the diagnosis in the UK and internationally. About 200,000 men in the UK will currently have an MRI scan of their prostate every year. However, there is a real shortage of trained experts to provide reports for these studies. This results in delays to diagnosis across the country and also sometimes incorrect reporting which can miss important cancers or cause patients to have unnecessary biopsies (with potential for infection and bleeding as two main risks of biopsy). Given the large numbers of men being investigated there is also a large healthcare system cost to diagnosing prostate cancer and avoiding unnecessary procedures would significantly reduce costs.

Based on the wealth of prostate MRI expertise at UCL and UCLH and the number of studies that we have done in men since 2004, we will develop the models to support an AI based automated reporting system that can address the shortage of trained radiologists in the UK and world wide. We also plan to develop along the way AI tools that radiologists can use to improve workflow and avoid incorrect interpretation of MRI studies.

Initially we aim to use images that we hold in our electronic health record (approximately 5000 prostate MRI studies). This will be used to explore and develop initial automated reporting and tools. These will then need to be further refined and tested before any of them can be used at UCLH and at other sites. This initial request for data sharing will seed the developmental process.