Researchers from the University of Sussex, UK, have developed groundbreaking new software that can produce prognostic information from diagnostic body images of cancer patients.
Now, the hunt is on for commercial backers and advanced clinical trial funders for TexRAD, the new imaging software that provides clinicians with vital additional information from scans, including biomarkers for risk stratification to more accurately predict the patient’s treatment outcome. Financial support for large-scale clinical trials will help bring to market a major new tool in the radiologist’s armory.
TexRAD is being developed by the Brighton and Sussex Medical School and in collaboration with clinicians at other locations including Dr Vicky Goh, Consultant Radiologist at Mount Vernon Hospital, Northwood, UK, said: “TexRAD provides unique tumor information, which in addition to standard morphological assessment, could improve therapeutic assessment in renal cancer treated with tyrosine kinase inhibitors. The preliminary results are encouraging for its use as a predictive biomarker in this clinical context.”
Dr Olga Strukowska, Consultant Radiologist of the Western Sussex Hospitals Trust, Worthing said: “The preliminary TexRAD results were impressive: I was able to identify an invasive breast cancer focus within larger area of pre-operative, non-invasive disease. This information, used as an addition to standard morphological assessment, could assist clinicians in treatment planning and optimal selection for sentinel node biopsy, and potentially minimize the number of two-step breast surgery, which is undertaken whenever an invasive disease is established, not before final histology.
TexRAD is an important development because it derives ‘textures’ from routine diagnostic images and highlights anomalies not apparent to the human eye. From these anomalies the software generates a risk stratification report and can even be used retrospectively on old scan data. TexRAD currently analyses CT images of colorectal, lung, renal and prostate cancers as well as Mammography for breast cancer.
TexRAD’s creator, Dr Balaji Ganeshan of the University of Sussex, highlighted the cost benefits of the technology, saying: “TexRAD can be integrated easily within existing hospital imaging systems without the need for any hardware modifications.”
The software can extract and quantify ‘hidden’ information from existing scans (CT, MRI, etc.) thereby increasing considerably the depth of information given by radiological images. Professor Ken Miles of BSMS, consultant radiologist and TexRAD clinical advisor, said: “TexRAD assists clinical decision-making by predicting the risk of disease and assessing the prognosis for cancer patients.”
To find out more about TexRAD contact Dr. Ian Carter, Director of Research and Enterprise at University of Sussex, on i.carter@sussex.ac.uk
For press information please contact Danielle Treanor, University of Sussex Press Office, m. 07740099325 e. Danielle.treanor@sussex.ac.uk
TexRAD is supported by prostate cancer support group PCaSO: http://www.pcaso.com/
Tags: balaji ganeshan, cancer, cancer diagnosis, cancer diagnostic, cancer imaging, CT images, dr vicky goh, MRI, predictive biomarker, professor ken miles, texrad, tumor information, University of Sussex
