Exploring AI for radiotherapy planning with Mayo Clinic

More than 18 million new cancer cases are diagnosed globally each year, and radiotherapy is one of the most common cancer treatments--used to treat over half of cancers in the United States. But planning for a course of radiotherapy treatment is often a time-consuming and manual process for clinicians. The most labor-intensive step in planning is a technique called "contouring" which involves segmenting both the areas of cancer and nearby healthy tissues that are susceptible to radiation damage during treatment. Clinicians have to painstakingly draw lines around sensitive organs on scans--a time-intensive process that can take up to seven hours for a single patient. Technology has the potential to augment the work of doctors and other care providers, like the specialists who plan radiotherapy treatment.