Telescope tech used to identify bowel cancer
Technology used to operate space telescopes is being repurposed to revolutionise bowel cancer diagnosis under a multi-million-pound initiative involving the UK Space Agency.
A team of researchers at University College London hopes to drastically reduce the time it takes to detect and diagnose the disease – one of the deadliest forms of cancer in the UK – by deploying space technology to help rapidly analyse colonoscopy videos.
The Early Diagnosis Realtime Healthcare System for Cancer project – “Earth Scan” – aims to take advantage of datacrunching and transmitting innovations first developed for controlling satellites. Analysing colonoscopy images, the system identifies polyps that can be missed by the human eye and lead to faster decisions on treatment.
It will be funded with a share of £5 million from the UK Space Agency to mark the 70th birthday of the NHS. UK science minister Chris Skidmore said the health service aimed to slash cancer deaths by borrowing technological advances from other sectors.