Artificial Intelligence and Infrared Imaging Used to Classify Tumors

The immense progress in the field of therapy options over the past years has significantly improved the chances of cure for patients with colon cancer. Researchers at the Centre for Protein Diagnostics PRODI at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, are using artificial intelligence in combination with infrared imaging to optimally tailor colon cancer therapy to individual patients. The label-free and automatable method can complement existing pathological analyses. The PRODI team has been developing a new digital imaging method over the last years: the so-called label-free infrared (IR) imaging measures the genomic and proteomic composition of the examined tissue, i.e. provides molecular information based on the infrared spectra. This information is decoded with the help of artificial intelligence and displayed as false-color images. In cooperation with clinical partners, the PRODI team was able to show that the use of deep neural networks makes it possible to reliably determine the so-called microsatellite status, a prognostically and therapeutically relevant parameter, in colon cancer. This process, the tissue sample goes through a standardized, user-independent, automated process and enables a spatially resolved differential classification of the tumor within one hour. The work of the Research Centre for Protein Diagnostics (PRODI) was funded by the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, Ministry of Culture and Science, and the register study was funded by Roche Pharma AG.