IAEA Research on AI-Assisted Contouring Suggests Benefits for Cancer Patients

Almost 100 radiation oncologists from 22 different radiotherapy centres - in Albania, Argentina, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Costa Rica, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Moldova, Mongolia, Nepal, North Macedonia, Pakistan, Sudan, Tunisia and Uganda - participated in the IAEA's study while Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark provided a total of 16 head and neck cancer cases.

For the study, radiation oncologists were randomly split into two groups: one that delineated organs at risk with AI and another that used manual methods. After an online IAEA workshop on AI-assisted contouring, both groups continued outlining cases, first with their original approach and then all using AI. A final round using AI was done six months later as a follow up.