School of Life Sciences, Pharmacy and Chemistry, Kingston University London, Kingston upon Thames, United Kingdom.
Cyprus University of Technology, Limassol, Cyprus.
J Cancer Policy. 2024 Mar;39:100457. doi: 10.1016/j.jcpo.2023.100457. Epub 2023 Nov 25.
Cancer poses significant challenges for healthcare professionals across the disease pathway including cancer imaging. This study constitutes part of the user requirement definition of INCISIVE EU project. The project has been designed to explore the full potential of artificial intelligence (AI)-based technologies in cancer imaging to streamline diagnosis and management. The study aimed to map cancer care pathways (breast, prostate, colorectal and lung cancers) across INCISIVE partner countries, and identify bottle necks within these pathways.
Email interviews were conducted with ten oncology specialised healthcare professionals representing INCISIVE partner countries: Greece, Cyprus, Spain, Italy, Finland, the United Kingdom (UK) and Serbia. A purposive sampling strategy was employed for recruitment and data was collected between December 2020 and April 2021. Data was entered into Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to allow content examination and comparative analysis.
The analysed pathways all shared a common characteristic: inequalities in relation to delays in cancer diagnosis and treatment. All the studied countries, except the UK, lacked official national data about diagnostic and therapeutic delays. Furthermore, a considerable variation was noted regarding the availability of imaging and diagnostic services across the seven countries. Several concerns were also noted for inefficiencies/inequalities with regards to national screening for the four investigated cancer types.
Delays in cancer diagnosis and treatment are an ongoing challenge and a source for inequalities. It is important to have systematic reporting of diagnostic and therapeutic delays in all countries to allow the proper estimation of its magnitude and support needed to address it. Our findings also support the orientation of the current policies towards early detection and wide scale adoption and implementation of cancer screening, through research, innovation, and technology. Technologies involving AI can have a great potential to revolutionise cancer care delivery.
This study highlights the widespread delay in cancer diagnosis across Europe and supports the need for, systematic reporting of delays, improved availability of imaging services, and optimised national screening programs. The goal is to enhance cancer care delivery, encourage early detection, and implement research, innovation, and AI-based technologies for improved cancer imaging.
癌症在疾病治疗过程中给医疗保健专业人员带来了巨大挑战，包括癌症影像诊断。本研究是 INCISIVE 欧盟项目用户需求定义的一部分。该项目旨在探索人工智能（AI）技术在癌症影像中的应用潜力，以简化诊断和管理流程。本研究旨在绘制 INCISIVE 合作伙伴国家的癌症治疗路径（乳腺癌、前列腺癌、结直肠癌和肺癌），并确定这些路径中的瓶颈。
对来自 INCISIVE 合作伙伴国家（希腊、塞浦路斯、西班牙、意大利、芬兰、英国和塞尔维亚）的 10 名肿瘤学专业医疗保健专业人员进行了电子邮件访谈。采用目的抽样策略进行招募，数据收集于 2020 年 12 月至 2021 年 4 月之间。数据输入 Microsoft Excel 电子表格，以允许内容检查和比较分析。
分析的所有路径都具有一个共同特征：癌症诊断和治疗延迟的不平等。除英国外，所有研究国家都缺乏关于诊断和治疗延迟的官方国家数据。此外，七个国家之间的成像和诊断服务的可用性存在相当大的差异。对于四项研究癌症类型的国家筛查，还存在效率低下/不平等的问题。
癌症诊断和治疗的延迟是一个持续存在的挑战，也是不平等的根源。重要的是要在所有国家系统地报告诊断和治疗延迟，以正确估计其规模并提供解决所需的支持。我们的研究结果还支持当前政策向早期检测和广泛采用和实施癌症筛查的方向发展，通过研究、创新和技术。涉及 AI 的技术具有彻底改变癌症护理的巨大潜力。
本研究强调了欧洲癌症诊断普遍延迟，并支持需要系统报告延迟、改善成像服务的可及性以及优化国家筛查计划。目标是提高癌症护理的提供，鼓励早期检测，并实施研究、创新和基于 AI 的技术，以改善癌症成像。
