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It was December 6, 2022 when the Irccs Sant’Orsola Polyclinic in Bologna announced the adoption of a tool that uses artificial intelligence (AI) for the early diagnosis of lung nodules. The debate about AI continues today in progress, but its benevolent potential is undoubted. This is demonstrated by the ”Body vision lung system”, the system that exploits AI adopted in the interventional pneumology unit of Sant’Orsola. At the time, the Bolognese Polyclinic was the first center in Europe to use this tool.
How Body vision works
The case of Interventional Pneumology at Sant’Orsola tells in practical terms the benefits that can derive from the use of artificial intelligence. Lung cancer has a very high incidence among neoplastic diseases: it is the second neoplasm in men (15%) and third in women (6%). It is a disease with a high mortality rate: every year, in Italy, around 41 thousand lung cancers are diagnosed. In 2021 alone, around 34 thousand deaths have been estimated from this disease.
In the early stages, lung cancer appears as a nodule less than 3 centimeters in diameter, which is usually detected via an x-ray. This is where the Body vision lung system comes into play: by cross-referencing in real time the data from computerized axial tomography (the usual CT scan) and the images from fluoroscopic radiology, this instrument reconstructs a three-dimensional image in real time which allows the position of the nodule to reach, which otherwise would not be possible to visualize. In fact, it reproduces a virtual bronchoscopy, i.e. a video showing the best path to follow according to the machine.
A reliable navigator
Doctors therefore use it as a small and sophisticated intelligent ‘navigator’, so as to reach places where it would not have been possible to reach with normal navigation, early finding even the less visible traces of peripheral pulmonary nodules. As underlined by the head of the Interventional Pneumology unit, Piero Candoli, the use of artificial intelligence allows an increase of over 10% in the early diagnosis of lung nodules, thus going from around 70% to over 80%. of probability.
”We have been using it for about a year – says Professor Candoli – both for the diagnostic phase and for the therapy of lung cancer. These are truly important technological innovations: in fact it is a guidance system for identifying even small peripheral nodes. They are real navigators that allow us to best direct ourselves in localization. This totally changes strategies even in the therapeutic field: obviously, the earlier the diagnosis, the better the treatment opportunities. Let’s talk about possible recoveries that would be impossible when the stage of the disease is more advanced. It’s a matter of life and death.” Since it was adopted, Body vision has been used on approximately 250 patients, with results that the head doctor defines as ”very satisfactory”. The machine is positioned right inside the endoscopy room of the Interventional Pulmonology unit. Although they are very sophisticated, tools like the Body vision lung system take up very little physical space.
Artificial intelligence and healthcare
However, the work of artificial intelligence, as Piero Candoli underlines, is not limited to diagnostics. From next October, in fact, the Polyclinic will adopt some robots which will be used above all in the interventional and surgical phase. ”We will be the first center in Italy to adopt these robots: they are designed both for diagnostics, but also to guide our instruments in the most precise way possible. Radiotherapy treatment comes to mind, for example, or in any case tumor ablation with microwaves and radio frequencies. This is the future prospect, especially for the most fragile patients who cannot undergo surgery or classic radiotherapy. In this way they can be treated in a more delicate but also more precise way, saving as much healthy tissue as possible, which is always important”.
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The specialty of the Sant’Orsola Polyclinic is that of being an Irccs, that is, a scientific hospitalization and treatment institute. As the Ministry of Health writes, these are ”hospitals of excellence that pursue research purposes in the biomedical field and in the organization and management of health services”. It is for this reason that Sant’Orsola facilitates the adoption of cutting-edge techniques, such as those that involve the use of artificial intelligence: ”One of the missions of our institute is to pursue real research projects in the healthcare sector. The requests to adopt these technologies come from us, from the specialized teams, but obviously the requests are endorsed by the institute’s top management, who have the task of understanding whether these investments can and should be made. Obviously this type of technology has a cost, but the investments are often sustainable if, for example, the diagnoses allow you to save on other costs, such as hospital stay or treatment, without naturally counting the benefits for the patients”.
