Reduced Time and Improved Outcomes in Cancer Surgeries with MarginCall

Anant Madabhushi, PhD, executive director of the Emory Empathetic AI for Health Institute and faculty in the department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences and the department of Biomedical Informatics and Pathology, and researcher of Cancer Immunology at the Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University, is currently leading a project developing MarginCall, a tool utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) to innovate cancer surgery, at the Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University.

During a conversation with CancerNetwork®, Madabhushi expressed that the project will improve patient outcomes by minimizing errors and improving the accuracy of tumor margin assessments. He hopes that, in the long term, there will be fewer recurrences and improved survival for patients.

Madabhushi highlighted saving time for the surgeon in the operating room as one of the major benefits of this tool as one of the current processes for removing a tumor is the frozen section procedure which can lead to a surgeon waiting for a pathologist to be available to analyze the tumor sample. This tool will reduce the amount of time that a surgeon spends doing nothing during a surgery.

At this time, the project has a focus on breast and ovarian cancer, though Madabhushi and fellow team members have already started thinking about how to apply the tool to other cancer types like head and neck cancer.

Transcript:

Apart from reducing the amount of time in the [operating room], what we’ll see is that this approach, in the long term, results in better patient outcomes. What that means is that with this technology, we’re reducing errors and improving the accuracy of the process, therefore ensuring that the surgeon is not leaving any tumor behind. From a patient perspective, hopefully, that means fewer recurrences, better long-term outcomes, and overall, better survival. In this case, we’re looking at breast and ovarian cancer, but we think that this paradigm is going to be applicable across the board in many different areas.

In fact…we’ve already started to think about how this approach can be applicable to other cancers, for instance, head and neck cancer, which we’ve already started to [think about]. Beyond the saving of time for the surgeon in the operating room, ultimately, I think this is going to result in better patient outcomes…and result in better survival for these patients.

References

Emory researchers awarded up to $17.6M from ARPA-H to innovate cancer surgery, improve outcomes. Emory Winship Cancer Institute. January 6, 2025. Accessed January 22, 2025. https://tinyurl.com/y3dpmtxr