AI and robotics are to be used to help detect lung cancer in a “trailblazing” scheme that experts are calling “a glimpse of the future of cancer detection”.
It comes alongside NHS plans to expand lung cancer screening, with all eligible people invited for their first check by 2030.
In addition, AI software will be used to analyse patients’ lung scans and flag suspicious spots, known as nodules.
A robotic catheter – a thin tube inserted into the patient via the throat – is used to take precise biopsies directly from the nodule, which are then checked in a lab to diagnose or rule out cancer.
The robotic system can reach spots as small as six millimetres, which are often hidden deep in the lung and can be missed at screening.
It’s harder for doctors to reach such nodules to take biopsies, meaning patients must wait for further scans to see if they grow.
Specialists at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust have already used robotic biopsies on 300 patients, with some 215 of them going on to have cancer treatment.
The new pilot will involve a further 250 patients, and it’s hoped other trusts will start performing the procedure.
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Lung cancer is the third most common cancer in the UK, with more than 49,000 new diagnoses and around 33,000 deaths every year.
Since 2019, more than 1.5 million people in England between the ages of 55 and 74 who have ever smoked have been invited to have their lung health checked, NHS England said, and a further 1.4 million people will be contacted next year alone.
Dame Esther Rantzen who was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer three years ago this week, told Mornings With Ridge And Frost she has accepted “there is no cure” for her condition but said treatment had “delayed” her cancer by three years and she “certainly didn’t expect to see last Christmas”.
Dame Esther who said she is not currently being treated, called the use of AI and robotics “a very hopeful sign that things are really radically changing when it comes to the treatment of cancer”.
Dame Esther Rantzen pictured in March 2022. Pic: PA
But she said she did not understand the programme’s apparent upper age limit. “75 is the new 55,” Dame Esther said.
“So I don’t know why people like me at 85 have been ruled out completely on the grounds that we’re past it and we should be grateful for what we got. They might have a look at that.
“I fully understand what it’s like if they can’t treat you, but this is on the basis that they can treat you early and they can stop it spreading and they can make a difference to your life expectancy. So I welcome it, of course, for other people.”
Professor Peter Johnson, NHS England’s national clinical director for cancer, said screening means more cases are being picked up at an early stage than ever, and the new pilot will support even “faster, more accurate biopsies”.
“This is a glimpse of the future of cancer detection,” he said.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting underwent robotic surgery when being treated for kidney cancer and said the NHS treatment “saved my life”.
He said the pilot will help catch the illness earlier, “replacing weeks of invasive testing with a single targeted procedure”.
