Project description
Predicting the aesthetic outcome of breast cancer surgery
Treatment of breast cancer usually involves surgery that varies depending on the individual tumour, the size and shape of the breasts or personal wishes. Breast-conserving surgery and mastectomy with or without breast reconstruction or lymph node removal are among the available options. Additionally, radiotherapy can be applied to optimise locoregional control. However, there is currently no way of recapitulating the aesthetic outcome following locoregional treatments for breast cancer. The EU-funded CINDERELLA project proposes to create an easy-to-use application based on AI that uses a clinical database and performs picture and biometric matching to create images that simulate to the patient the outcome of surgery. The platform called CINDERELLA APProach will reinforce the role of the patient in clinical decision-making.
Objective
Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer, with an estimated 2.3 million new cases per year globally. Approximately 90% of these patients will undergo breast surgery with/without radiation (locoregional treatment). Different surgical techniques can be offered to the patient, each leading to completely different aesthetic outcomes. Moreover, for different patients, undergoing the same surgery, the aesthetic outcome could be completely different based on individual patient's factors (e.g age, body habitus). In the CINDERELLA project, we will be using the BreLO AI system (an artificial intelligence-based tool for classification of aesthetic outcomes and matching data and photographs) integrated in CANKADO (a cloud-based healthcare platform) to create an easy-to-use application that can be used on any electronic device, to simulate visually to the patient the aesthetic outcome of a certain surgery. The CINDERELLA APProach is unique as it uses a clinical database and performs biometric matching, to create images that simulate to the patient the outcome of surgery. In the CINDERELLA trial (running during the project) we plan to compare if the application helped to fulfil the expectation and lead to a better quality of life. By feeding new clinical and photographic information to the CINDERELLA APProach after surgery, the artificial intelligence platform will be able to improve for the next cases. This trial will be practice-changing in the field of patient education and shared decision making. CINDERELLA platform will help to overcome any miscommunication and potential boundaries in patient's or physician's understanding of the potential outcomes of locoregional treatment of breast cancer. We believe that the CINDERELLA APProach will be used in the future to other locoregional treatments that might change patients aesthetic appearance. Thus, CINDERELLA APProach will be the forerunner for new innovative tools for communicating with our patients.
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Funding Scheme
HORIZON-RIA - HORIZON Research and Innovation ActionsCoordinator
1400-038 Lisboa
Portugal