Determining the value proposition for DLCExpert in NHS radiotherapy planning

"For approximately 50% patients diagnosed with cancer, radiotherapy can be offered as a treatment instead of (or sometimes in combination with) surgery or chemotherapy. Radiotherapy directs beams of radiation to specific regions of the body to kill the cancer cells.

Contouring is a critical part of radiotherapy treatment planning which defines where the radiation will be applied and which areas must be avoided. Deep Learning Contouring is a method for auto-contouring organs-at-risk (OAR) and other standard anatomical structures using deep learning. The system is trained to imitate human contouring performance based on hundreds of training cases, and has been found to generate contours with greater clinical acceptance than previous auto-contouring methods.

This project is a collaboration between Mirada Medical, Oxford University NHS Foundation Trust and the Oxford Academic Science Health Network which will develop a study to be carried out with the National Institute of for Care and Health Excellence that clearly demonstrates the health economic benefits of this technology which can simplify the contouring process and mean that these radiation therapies can be offered to more patients in the NHS."