Researchers from UMC Utrecht, along with pathologists and neurosurgeons from the Princess Máxima Center for pediatric oncology and Amsterdam UMC, published a study in Nature that uses artificial intelligence (AI) technology to expedite the identification of brain tumors during surgery, completing the process in just 1.5 hours, a week-long process.

How AI Quickens the Detection of Various Brain Tumor Type?

In the Netherlands, 1,400 adults and 150 children are diagnosed with brain or spinal cord tumors annually. However, neurosurgeons often lack precise knowledge about the tumor's type and aggressiveness during surgery. The exact diagnosis is usually available one week post-surgery after visual and molecular analysis.

Jeroen de Ridder, research group leader within UMC Utrecht and Oncode Institute: "Recently, Nanopore sequencing became available: a technology that helps to read DNA in real time. For this, we developed an algorithm that is equipped to learn from millions of simulated realistic 'DNA snapshots'. With this algorithm, we can identify the tumor type within 20 to 40 minutes. And that is fast enough to directly adjust the surgical strategy, if necessary."

Bastiaan Tops, who heads the Pediatric Oncology Laboratory at the Princess Máxima Center, orchestrated the integration of new technology with the requirements from the operating room. This achievement was made possible through funding from the KiKa foundation, and more notably, the extensive biobank that the Máxima Center has maintained for years, which includes the storage of tissue samples from children with brain tumors. The algorithm was trained and tested using this biobank.

As a result, the entire process was also implemented multiple times during real brain surgeries, encompassing the extraction of tissue in the operating room and the determination of the tumor type. In Utrecht, this was performed with children, and in Amsterdam with adults, with the entire procedure taking 60 to 90 minutes.

The Princess Máxima Center has determined that the technique's results are sufficiently reliable and has already implemented it with children for whom the outcome can impact the surgical strategy. Amsterdam UMC also plans to use the technique in daily practice to expedite diagnoses.

Eelco Hoving, a pediatric neurosurgeon and clinical director of neuro-oncology at the Máxima Center, is enthusiastic about the potential of DNA analysis during surgery, "During surgery, a small remnant of tumor tissue is sometimes deliberately left behind to prevent neurological damage. But if it will later turn out, for example, that the tumor is very aggressive, a second surgery may still be necessary to remove that last remnant. This will again create risks and stress for patients and their families. This can be avoided now because we will already know during the first surgery what type of tumor we are dealing with."

Jeroen de Ridder said, "It is wonderful that we have been able to actually make the step into clinical practice by combining all areas of expertise, from basic researchers to pathologists and surgeons. By doing so, we can help surgeons to optimize the outcome of brain tumor surgery."

The new technique for diagnosing cancer requires further research to include more tumor types and align with international standards. A comparative analysis between the faster method and the current method will be conducted in collaboration with other centers to determine if the new method will significantly improve patient quality of life.