Expert system classifier for adaptive radiation therapy in prostate cancer. Australas Phys Eng Sci Med. 2017;40:337-348. [PMID: 28290067 DOI: 10.1007/s13246-017-0535-5]

Artificial intelligence in radiation oncology

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a computer science that tries to mimic human-like intelligence in machines that use computer software and algorithms to perform specific tasks without direct human input. Machine learning (ML) is a subunit of AI that uses data-driven algorithms that learn to imitate human behavior based on a previous example or experience. Deep learning is an ML technique that uses deep neural networks to create a model. The growth and sharing of data, increasing computing power, and developments in AI have initiated a transformation in healthcare. Advances in radiation oncology have produced a significant amount of data that must be integrated with computed tomography imaging, dosimetry, and imaging performed before each fraction. Of the many algorithms used in radiation oncology, has advantages and limitations with different computational power requirements. The aim of this review is to summarize the radiotherapy (RT) process in workflow order by identifying specific areas in which quality and efficiency can be improved by ML. The RT stage is divided into seven stages: patient evaluation, simulation, contouring, planning, quality control, treatment application, and patient follow-up. A systematic evaluation of the applicability, limitations, and advantages of AI algorithms has been done for each stage.

Artificial Intelligence and Its Impact on Urological Diseases and Management: A Comprehensive Review of the Literature

Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have certainly had a significant impact on the healthcare industry. In urology, AI has been widely adopted to deal with numerous disorders, irrespective of their severity, extending from conditions such as benign prostate hyperplasia to critical illnesses such as urothelial and prostate cancer. In this article, we aim to discuss how algorithms and techniques of artificial intelligence are equipped in the field of urology to detect, treat, and estimate the outcomes of urological diseases. Furthermore, we explain the advantages that come from using AI over any existing traditional methods.

Artificial intelligence in radiotherapy

Artificial intelligence (AI) has already been implemented widely in the medical field in the recent years. This paper first reviews the background of AI and radiotherapy. Then it explores the basic concepts of different AI algorithms and machine learning methods, such as neural networks, that are available to us today and how they are being implemented in radiotherapy and diagnostic processes, such as medical imaging, treatment planning, patient simulation, quality assurance and radiation dose delivery. It also explores the ongoing research on AI methods that are to be implemented in radiotherapy in the future. The review shows very promising progress and future for AI to be widely used in various areas of radiotherapy. However, basing on various concerns such as availability and security of using big data, and further work on polishing and testing AI algorithms, it is found that we may not ready to use AI primarily in radiotherapy at the moment.

Current status of artificial intelligence applications in urology and their potential to influence clinical practice

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the applications of artificial intelligence (AI) in diagnosis, treatment and outcome predictionin urologic diseases and evaluate its advantages over traditional models and methods.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A literature search was performed after PROSPERO registration (CRD42018103701) and in compliance with Preferred Reported Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) methods. Articles between 1994 and 2018 using the search terms "urology", "artificial intelligence", "machine learning" were included and categorized by the application of AI in urology. Review articles, editorial comments, articles with no full-text access, and nonurologic studies were excluded.

RESULTS

Initial search yielded 231 articles, but after excluding duplicates and following full-text review and examination of article references, only 111 articles were included in the final analysis. AI applications in urology include: utilizing radiomic imaging or ultrasonic echo data to improve or automate cancer detection or outcome prediction, utilizing digitized tissue specimen images to automate detection of cancer on pathology slides, and combining patient clinical data, biomarkers, or gene expression to assist disease diagnosis or outcome prediction. Some studies employed AI to plan brachytherapy and radiation treatments while others used video based or robotic automated performance metrics to objectively evaluate surgical skill. Compared to conventional statistical analysis, 71.8% of studies concluded that AI is superior in diagnosis and outcome prediction.

CONCLUSION

AI has been widely adopted in urology. Compared to conventional statistics AI approaches are more accurate in prediction and more explorative for analyzing large data cohorts. With an increasing library of patient data accessible to clinicians, AI may help facilitate evidence-based and individualized patient care.

Artificial Intelligence in Clinical Decision Support: a Focused Literature Survey

OBJECTIVES

This survey analyses the latest literature contributions to clinical decision support systems (DSSs) on a two-year period (2017-2018), focusing on the approaches that adopt Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques in a broad sense. The goal is to analyse the distribution of data-driven AI approaches with respect to "classical" knowledge-based ones, and to consider the issues raised and their possible solutions.

METHODS

We included PubMed and Web of ScienceTM publications, focusing on contributions describing clinical DSSs that adopted one or more AI methodologies.

RESULTS

We selected 75 papers, 49 of which describe approaches in the data-driven AI area, 20 present purely knowledge-based DSSs, and 6 adopt hybrid approaches relying on both formalized knowledge and data.

CONCLUSIONS

Recent studies in the clinical DSS area demonstrate a prevalence of data-driven AI, which can be adopted autonomously in purely data-driven systems, or in cooperation with domain knowledge in hybrid systems. Such hybrid approaches, able to conjugate all available knowledge sources through proper knowledge integration steps, represent an interesting example of synergy between the two AI categories. This synergy can lead to the resolution of some existing issues, such as the need for transparency and explainability, nowadays recognized as central themes to be addressed by both AI and medical informatics research.

Applications and limitations of machine learning in radiation oncology

Machine learning approaches to problem-solving are growing rapidly within healthcare, and radiation oncology is no exception. With the burgeoning interest in machine learning comes the significant risk of misaligned expectations as to what it can and cannot accomplish. This paper evaluates the role of machine learning and the problems it solves within the context of current clinical challenges in radiation oncology. The role of learning algorithms within the workflow for external beam radiation therapy are surveyed, considering simulation imaging, multimodal fusion, image segmentation, treatment planning, quality assurance, and treatment delivery and adaptation. For each aspect, the clinical challenges faced, the learning algorithms proposed, and the successes and limitations of various approaches are analyzed. It is observed that machine learning has largely thrived on reproducibly mimicking conventional human-driven solutions with more efficiency and consistency. On the other hand, since algorithms are generally trained using expert opinion as ground truth, machine learning is of limited utility where problems or ground truths are not well-defined, or if suitable measures of correctness are not available. As a result, machines may excel at replicating, automating and standardizing human behaviour on manual chores, meanwhile the conceptual clinical challenges relating to definition, evaluation, and judgement remain in the realm of human intelligence and insight.

Deep convolutional neural network with transfer learning for rectum toxicity prediction in cervical cancer radiotherapy: a feasibility study

Better understanding of the dose-toxicity relationship is critical for safe dose escalation to improve local control in late-stage cervical cancer radiotherapy. In this study, we introduced a convolutional neural network (CNN) model to analyze rectum dose distribution and predict rectum toxicity. Forty-two cervical cancer patients treated with combined external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) and brachytherapy (BT) were retrospectively collected, including twelve toxicity patients and thirty non-toxicity patients. We adopted a transfer learning strategy to overcome the limited patient data issue. A 16-layers CNN developed by the visual geometry group (VGG-16) of the University of Oxford was pre-trained on a large-scale natural image database, ImageNet, and fine-tuned with patient rectum surface dose maps (RSDMs), which were accumulated EBRT  +  BT doses on the unfolded rectum surface. We used the adaptive synthetic sampling approach and the data augmentation method to address the two challenges, data imbalance and data scarcity. The gradient-weighted class activation maps (Grad-CAM) were also generated to highlight the discriminative regions on the RSDM along with the prediction model. We compare different CNN coefficients fine-tuning strategies, and compare the predictive performance using the traditional dose volume parameters, e.g. D _0.1/1/2cc, and the texture features extracted from the RSDM. Satisfactory prediction performance was achieved with the proposed scheme, and we found that the mean Grad-CAM over the toxicity patient group has geometric consistence of distribution with the statistical analysis result, which indicates possible rectum toxicity location. The evaluation results have demonstrated the feasibility of building a CNN-based rectum dose-toxicity prediction model with transfer learning for cervical cancer radiotherapy.