Researchers at the Georg-August-University in Göttingen and scientists in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) at Siemens Healthineers are working together on a so-called digital biopsy to be able to detect molecular changes in tumours of people with cancer better, faster and less cost-intensive. The joint project, which is called Cancer Scout, is supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) with 9.6 million euros, which is investing a total of 90 million euros in 61 additional projects. According to the BMBF, the cancer research project is considered a revolution, because 500,000 new cases of cancer in Germany each year present 1200 pathologists with major challenges that can be met more effectively and comprehensively with the help of digital biopsy methods, explain the head of „New Business Development and Planning“, Christian Wolfrum of Siemens Healthineers, and Professor Philipp Ströbel, Director of Pathology in Göttingen. Tailor-made cancer therapy measures are thus possible after molecular genetic examination of tumour tissue, including a search for biomarkers, because every cancer patient has his or her own characteristic changes in his or her cells, which can be deciphered by means of precise digital biopsy – histological tumour preparations remain a prerequisite thereafter – and not only contribute to improving diagnostics, but can also turn targeted or personalized cancer therapy on its head. The training of the artificial neural network of the BMBF project Cancer Scout takes place by means of radiological images, which are available to the scientists in abundance. A database with one billion images provides the training-relevant data, such as data from pathology (the study of pathological conditions in the body and their causes), genomics (decoding the complete DNA set, hereditary characteristics) and proteomics (the totality of all proteins in a cell).
