We need better tools to accurately assess the patient's outcome. Many cancer patients receive more treatment than they need.
Overtreated patients are susceptible to severe side effects and reduced quality of life. This is a burden to patients and expensive to society.
The shortage of pathologists only adds to the increasing difficulty to keep up with patient demand. The manual laboratory procedures needed to render a prognosis are time-consuming and subjective. We are using digital tools, to increase efficiency in pathology and to provide a more accurate prognosis to cancer patients. This will make the process behind the choice of treatment faster and safer.
A tumor can contain several regions of different and unevenly distributed aberrations that may or may not lead to cancer. This is called heterogeneity and it is a great challenge for prognosis of cancer.
The interactive graphics linked above show prostate cancer in 3D and demonstrate heterogeneity as it is observed in sections.
Development of new methods for faster and more secure prognosis is the key to a more precise treatment.
We are using new tools and developing methods in cancer types where pathology has met its limits. This will reduce human error and remove subjective analyses. Patients will benefit through more precise prognosis and more targeted treatment.
Recent years' advances in computing and processing have made it possible to explore far greater amounts of data than before.
We are using big data and deep learning to establish more robust grading systems. Our computers will be able to retrieve and treat far more information about a tumour than pathologists can do with today's methods.
We have a team of national and international experts within many different fields, including digital image analysis, tumor pathology, cancer surgery and oncology.
The project is led by Professor Håvard E. Danielsen, Director of Institute for Cancer Genetics and Informatics (ICGI), Oslo University Hospital (OUS).
The DoMore! project is funded by the Norwegian Research Council's ICT Lighthouse project grant