AI to simulate cancer trials with £5.9m funding
Pioneering AI initiative aims to transform cancer treatment with virtual trials in Manchester.
Researchers at the University of Manchester and The Christie Cancer Hospital have received a £5.9 million grant from Cancer Research UK to use AI in cancer treatment. The funding will support a project that simulates clinical trials to test the effectiveness of radiotherapy on ‘virtual’ patients, created using real-life data. This innovative approach aims to make cancer research faster, safer, and more cost-effective than traditional large-scale clinical trials.
The virtual trials will focus on patient-specific genetics and tumours, with a particular emphasis on comparing new proton beam therapy with conventional radiotherapy for lung cancer. AI will allow researchers to test treatments more quickly than through traditional trials involving real patients. This initiative is part of Cancer Research UK’s push to advance radiotherapy research, with Manchester being one of only seven centres of excellence in the UK to receive funding for this work.
Martin Storey, a lung cancer survivor who benefited from radiotherapy in a clinical trial, expressed his support for the project, saying that AI-driven trials could help more people survive cancer. Storey, who was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2009, believes that the use of AI could accelerate treatment advancements and improve outcomes for future patients.
