The Institut Curie announced this week its research partnership with Ibex Medical Analytics to improve breast cancer diagnosis using artificial intelligence. The research will aim to meet a growing need for automated solutions and decision support tools.
Breast cancer is the most common malignant disease among women worldwide, with more than 2 million new cases each year. Accurate and timely diagnosis of breast cancer is essential to guide treatment decisions and improve patient survival rates.
“The importance of breast pathology continues to grow as new, more personalized treatments for breast cancer become available, many of which are based on precision medicine and require more testing and diagnosis by pathologists,” said Dr. Anne Vincent-Salomon, Head of Pathology at the Institut Curie and principal investigator of the study.
“We believe that artificial intelligence can help us meet these challenges and we are delighted to partner with Ibex, the leader in AI for cancer pathology diagnosis. This collaboration will allow Institut Curie pathologists to experience AI first-hand and assess its usefulness in diagnosing breast cancer. »
The analysis of breast tissue samples by a pathologist, usually by means of a gross examination followed by microscopic examination of tissue sections from biopsies or surgical specimens, remains the standard method for the diagnosis and staging of cancer.
However, in recent years, the increasing prevalence of cancer, combined with the decreasing number of pathologists specializing in cancer diagnosis, has led to an increased workload and often relatively long waiting times for test results. It is clear that there is a growing need for automated solutions and decision support tools that can help pathologists diagnose cancer with maximum accuracy more quickly, while enabling comprehensive and affordable quality control.
Amaury Martin, PhD, Director of Valorization and Industrial Partnerships at the Institut Curie and the Carnot Curie Cancer Institute, said :
“This collaboration illustrates the Institut Curie’s approach to partnership research, which combines the expertise of clinicians with the know-how of an innovation-oriented technology company. It illustrates our commitment to play a major role in the development of artificial intelligence approaches applied to personalized medicine. »
This groundbreaking research partnership will include a rich set of breast biopsy slide data, digitized using a digital pathology scanner and analyzed for cancer detection by Ibex’s GalenTM Breast solution. Independently, several Institut Curie pathologists will diagnose the slides and then blindly analyze the performance of the AI solution. Galen Breast – the first AI solution used for the detection of breast cancer in pathology – was developed using state-of-the-art AI and machine learning techniques and has been trained on hundreds of thousands of image samples.
“We are delighted to partner with the Institut Curie, a world leader in breast cancer research and treatment, with the first-ever blind, independent evaluation of an AI solution for breast cancer detection,” said Daphna Laifenfeld, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer at Ibex Medical Analytics.
“Our Galen Prostate solution has demonstrated outstanding clinical results and enables pathologists worldwide to improve diagnostic accuracy and implement 100% quality control. We continue to expand our platform to new tissue types, this time focusing on breast biopsies, and we are delighted to be working with Dr. Vincent-Salomon and his team on this important breast cancer study. »
Translated from L’Institut Curie signe un partenariat avec Ibex Medical Analytics pour améliorer la détection du cancer du sein grâce à l’IA
