Dr. Scott Hopkins using Artificial Intelligence for on-the-spot cancer diagnosis platform

Awarded $250,000 from the Cancer Digital Intelligence’s Grand Challenge, Hopkins aims to improve treatment options for brain and spine cancers

By Elizabeth Kleisath

Communications Officer, Advancement

This year, approximately 3,300 Canadians will be diagnosed with cancer in their brain or spine. Of these patients, 79 % will die from their central nervous system (CNS) cancers, due to the limitations of our current treatment options. Dr. Scott Hopkins, a professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Waterloo, is working to improve these survival rates.

CNS cancers include many different types of tumors. In current treatment methods, patients undergo neurosurgery to remove the tumor, which is then sent for post-operative analysis to determine the tumor type. However, different types of CNS cancers have individual surgical guidelines based on how aggressive they are. This means that during this initial surgery, doctors do not know which guidelines to follow to balance removing the tumor and preserving all the healthy tissue, and patients must then undergo multiple neurological surgeries to meet the treatment guidelines.

Hopkins, in partnership with collaborators at Princess Margaret Hospital, is developing a new diagnostic tool that can identify the CNS cancer type in just 10 seconds. With this short time frame, it could be used mid-surgery to provide surgeons with accurate information. Their project has just been selected as the winner of the Cancer Digital Intelligence (CDI) Grand Challenge: Responsible Artificial Intelligence, and the team has been awarded $250,000 in resources to implement this project.

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