Radiotherapy is one of the main ways head and neck cancers are treated;
radiation is used to kill cancerous cells and prevent their recurrence.
Complex treatment planning is required to ensure that enough radiation is given
to the tumour, and little to other sensitive structures (known as organs at risk)
such as the eyes and nerves which might otherwise be damaged. This is
especially difficult in the head and neck, where multiple at-risk structures often
lie in extremely close proximity to the tumour. It can take radiotherapy experts
four hours or more to pick out the important areas on planning scans (known as
segmentation).
This research will focus on applying machine learning algorithms to automatic
segmentation of head and neck planning computed tomography (CT) and
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans at University College London
Hospital NHS Foundation Trust patients. Through analysis of the images used
in radiotherapy DeepMind Health will investigate improvements in efficiency of
cancer treatment pathways
