Aiforia has entered into an exclusive licensing agreement with the Mayo Clinic in the United States to globally commercialise an AI model that improves prediction of colorectal cancer recurrence. The AI model - developed in collaboration with the Mayo Clinic - identifies important histological features of colorectal cancer and provides a recurrence prediction estimate useful for colorectal cancer treatment decisions.
“This is the first example of an AI model developed with the Aiforia platform, which is used to assess the risk of cancer recurrence. It is also the first clinically relevant AI model developed with a customer and commercialised by Aiforia,” commented Jukka Tapaninen, the CEO of Aiforia.
“The licensing agreement with the Mayo Clinic enables us to market and sell this AI model for colorectal cancer recurrence risk evaluation globally. This is an example of many similar AI model co-development projects, which are ongoing with the Mayo Clinic and other partners. These will enable us to significantly enrich our product portfolio.”
The co-developed prognostic AI model identifies 15 different tissue characteristics in colorectal cancer patient samples, and combined with two other clinical parameters, it produces a colorectal cancer recurrence risk score. For example, an AI model can identify patients who may not need chemotherapy because the probability of cancer recurrence is low. It may also help to identify those patients who are at high risk of relapse and may benefit from more intensive treatment or follow up. The implementation of an artificial intelligence model may save significant sums in treatment costs when expensive chemotherapy drugs are targeted more efficiently than at present. The most important benefit from the patient's point of view is the reduction of chemotherapy without worsening the treatment results. In practice, this can mean significant reduction of harmful side effects. The functionality of the AI model has been proven retrospectively in several independent patient sample cohorts.
The Aiforia collaboration with the Mayo Clinical began in 2020, with the implementation of the Aiforia AI-assisted image analysis software in pathology research. In the translational research today, more than 70 Mayo Clinic pathologists use the Aiforia Create tool for creating AI models for their research studies, which aim to utilise the models in clinical work later. There are more than 30 ongoing research projects utilising the Aiforia technology at the Mayo Clinic.