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NHS Hospitals Will Test AI Tools To Diagnose And Treat Prostate Cancer 

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A new tool that uses artificial intelligence is being tested in NHS hospitals. The tool is meant to help diagnose men with prostate cancer and guide decisions regarding their specific treatment course. 

Prostate Cancer UK provided £1,900,000 ($2,474,550.50) to the Vanguard Path study which is being led by University of Oxford researchers. The study, according to reports, is expected to last for three years and will test a new AI tool called the ArteraAI Prostate Biopsy Assay. 

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The researchers are planning to take biopsies from over 4,000 men. The tool is meant to analyze digitized biopsy images to format a personalized risk score for each patient to determine if they have a high-risk for prostate cancer. This score will also determine who can benefit from the drug aburaterone. 

The tool has already been utilized in clinical trials, one of which took place in the US that suggests it can also be used for less aggressive forms of prostate cancer to predict which men are most likely to benefit from having hormone therapy and radiotherapy. 

Even further, the tool can likely help identify which patients don’t need immediate treatment and can instead be closely monitored. 

“If and when this gets implemented, you could use one tool irrespective of where you are on the aggressiveness scale, to make a very clinically and life-enhancingly important decision for each of those men,” said director of research at Prostate Cancer UK, Dr. Matthew Hobbs. 

Dr. Hobbs also mentioned that the tool is already being widely used in the US.  

In the new study within NHS hospitals, prostate biopsy samples from men already diagnosed and treated for prostate cancer will be used. These samples also come from men with suitable follow-up data, so researchers can further analyse the success of the tool when applied further to patients in the UK. 

North Bristol NHS trust, Oxford University hospitals NHS foundation trust, and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde will be testing the tool. 

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“Biopsies will be analyzed, the treatment choices will be made, and the man will start treatment. But at the same time, the NHS clinicians will be given a readout from this tool and asked: ‘If you had this, would you have recommended the same treatment or not?’” said Hobbs.

“A good outcome from this is that this tool is implemented in the NHS. However, for that to happen, it has to be shown to be scientifically valid, cost-effective, and make a difference to treatment decisions,” he said. 

Professor Gerhardt Attard, from the University College London who was not part of the trial but involved in the study around abiraterone, said this research is important based on the existent results. 

“When you take that to the real NHS world, there are a number of challenges and differences that would inevitably arise and that’s what this study will address,” he said.

Ashley Dalton, the minister for public health and prevention, said:

“This groundbreaking research could be a huge step forward, demonstrating the power of technology to potentially transform lives and improve cancer outcomes.”

“This is exactly why we’re investing in a digital NHS. By harnessing AI and moving beyond outdated systems, we can transform cancer care – diagnosing earlier, treating more effectively, and improving patient experience.”

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Scientists Discover New Way To Potentially Slow Down The Progression Of Dementia 

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Scientists at the University of Helsinki have successfully demonstrated a new way to potentially slow down the progression of dementia, and other memory disorders. 

Within their demonstration, according to SciTechDaily, scientists showed that a compound called a “PREP inhibitor” can prevent the build up of one of the harmful proteins that’s responsible for contributing to memory disorders. 

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The protein build up itself is seen in patients suffering with Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s, and other types of dementia. 

According to the University of Helsinki and their publishing in SciTechDaily, the process within these diseases “involves the formation of b-amyloid plaques and Tau protein aggregates within brain cells, which are known as neurofibrillary tangles. The prevailing theory suggests that the creation of Tau aggregates ultimately leads to the death of neurons.”

The amount of Tau present parallels the severity of symptoms within these diseases. 

In a published paper, Professor Timo Myöhänen’s group from the Universities of Helsinki showed that “a PREP inhibitor reduces Tau accumulation and toxicity also in the cellular models, including patient-derived neurons from frontotemporal dementia patients.”

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The PREP inhibitor treatment was also tested within a mouse model for frontotemporal dementia. In the clinical trial, a one-month treatment with the PREP inhibitor was started by the time scientists found memory impairment within the subjects. 

After their PREP inhibitor treatment, the mice who received a control treatment showed poor performance in memory tests, while the mice treated with the PREP inhibitor had normal cognitive skills. 

“Our most important discovery was that the PREP inhibitor treatment had reduced Tau accumulation in the brain areas related to cognition and memory, also leading to reduced oxidative stress markers that are common in neurodegenerative diseases,” says Professor Timo Myöhänen.

“The results from the memory tests after PREP inhibitor treatment were surprisingly good, as treatments in similar studies are usually initiated before the symptoms, not after symptom onset. This supports the further development of PREP-targeting drugs, and we are currently looking for investors or collaborators for this”, Professor Myöhänen says.

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New Technology Helps Two Patients With Stroke Paralysis Regain Movement in Their Hands

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According to a report in Nature Medicine, two stroke patients were able to regain the use of a paralyzed arm and hand after receiving electrical pulses to a specific area of their spinal cords.

One of the patients, Heather Rendulic, previously could not carry out routine tasks involving her left hand, such as holding a fork or making a fist.

Rendulic had a series of five strokes over a period of 11 months when she was 22 years old due to a rare brain disease called cavernous angioma, which left her paralyzed on her left side.

After volunteering for and undergoing a clinical study in 2021 to improve the lives of people like her, Rendulic opened her hand for the first time in nine years.

“I live one-handed in a two-handed world, and you don’t realize how many things you need two hands for until you only have one good one.”

During the clinical trial, researchers from the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University implanted a pair of thin metal electrodes along the surface of Rendulic’s spinal cord. The electrodes sent tiny electrical pulses to stimulate specific regions and activate nerve cells.

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Study co-author and assistant professor of neurological surgery at the University of Pittsburgh, Dr. Marco Capogrosso, shared how everyone in the room was stunned when Rendulic could “move her hand and arm after nine years from day one.”

“The whole lab was crying because…we didn’t really expect that this could work as fast.”

Rendulic described the stimulation as “kind of like a tickle.” The process did not hurt her, but it initially felt a bit uncomfortable.

“When the stimulation is on, I feel like I now have control of my arm and my hand again that I haven’t had.”

Rendulic can now carry out several mobility tasks, including drawing a spiral, opening a lock, and gripping and lifting a soup can while the device is still on. At the end of the four-week trial, she was even able to cut her own steak. The other patient in the trial saw the same newfound range of motion.

Researchers hope this new technology, paired with targeted physical training, can improve outcomes even further.

Spinal cord stimulation has long been used to treat chronic pain. Prior research has shown that the same technology could restore leg movement after a spinal cord injury. However, upper limb paralysis has always been more challenging to restore since multiple nerves are involved in the movement of shoulders, wrists and arms.

Dr. Capogrosso says that while people still retain some of these neural connections, “They’re just not enough to enable movement.” The messages are weaker than normal.

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Dr. Douglas Weber, another of the study’s co-authors and professor of mechanical engineering at the Neuroscience Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, described how electrical pulses could strengthen those connections.

“The sensory nerves from the arm and hand send signals to motor neurons in the spinal cord that control the muscles of the limb. By stimulating these sensory nerves, we can amplify the activity of muscles that have been weakened by stroke. Importantly, the patient retains full control of their movements: The stimulation is assistive and strengthens muscle activation only when patients are trying to move.”

Dr. Capogrosso looks forward to what these results mean for future stroke treatment.

“We found that after a few weeks of use, some of these improvements endure when the stimulation is switched off, indicating exciting avenues for the future of stroke therapies.”

As of right now, the chronic stage of paralysis, which occurs six months or later after a stroke, cannot be treated effectively. However, this new simulation technology has promising potential, given that the benefits of the simulation persisted for up to four weeks after the end of the procedure with no serious side effects.

Study co-author Dr. Elvira Pirondini, an assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at the University of Pittsburgh, states, “Creating effective neurorehabilitation solutions for people affected by movement impairment after stroke is becoming ever more urgent.”

“Even mild deficits resulting from a stroke can isolate people from social and professional lives and become very debilitating, with motor impairments in the arm and hand being especially taxing and impeding simple daily activities, such as writing, eating and getting dressed.”

In the meantime, Rendulic has hope for the future. “I really hope and pray that this becomes widely available,” she says, “because I know it’s going to change so many lives.”