Skattefunn: Gastro-Intestinal Real-time Detection for Colonoscopy

Offentlig prosjektsammendrag

Gastrointestinal (GI) diseases are largely influencing quality of life with almost 3 million new GI cancers per year. The mortality is about 65%, but it is heavily influenced by early detection of neoplasia, where a 1% increase in detection can decrease the risk of cancer with 3%. For example, colon cancer is the third most common cause of cancer mortality, and it is a condition where early detection is important for survival, i.e., going from a low 10-30% 5-year survival probability if detected in later stages (III-IV) to a high 90% survival probability in early stages (I-II). Screening on a regular basis is therefore recommended, and the Norwegian Government has therefore decided to implement a national bowel screening program for 55 year old citizens starting from 2019 and providing full coverage by 2024. Colonoscopy will be a cornerstone in this program. A critical problem with colonoscopy, however, is the variability between the detection rate in performed procedures. Studies have shown that especially polyps of less than 10 mm, which with time may evolve into cancer, are overlooked very often, with a miss rate of 22%. The differences that occurs between endoscopists in and colorectal screening situation have shown to be significant. At the same time, studies have shown that in early detection of neoplasia, a 1% increase in detection can decrease the risk of cancer by 3%. This leaves a strong incentive for the development of tools that can aid the polyp detection rate. Image analysis powered by machine learning trained on datasets annotated by endoscopists can identify anomalies like bleeding and polyps in the video. Provided with high-quality training data, the finished model can give doctors real-time feedback based on the video feed from the procedure, identifying hard-to-detect polyps. Augere Medical is currently developing a such tool as a medical device to be connected to the endoscopy equipment, soon to be available to clinics.