Following the joint launch of the "National AI Open Innovation Platform for Medical Imaging of Ministry of Science and Technology - Construction of Cervical Fluid-Based Cytology AI Database" by LBP and Tencent in November last year, a researcher meeting on "Multi-center Clinical Evaluation of AI Cytology-Assisted Diagnostic System for Cervical Cancer" led by the School of Group Medicine and Public Health, Peking Union Medical College, sponsored vby Guangzhou LBP Medicine Science & Technology Co., Ltd. and participated by Tencent AI Lab and Love for Pathology was successfully held in Guangzhou recently. Ltd., through a combination of online and offline methods, with many famous experts and scholars in China invited, aiming to promote the industry-college-institute cooperation through academic exchanges, and to accelerate the application of artificial intelligence technology in cervical cancer screening and the obtaining of registration certificate of cervical cytology AI-assisted diagnosis system III products.

Incidence of cervical cancer

According to the latest data from the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2020, the number of new cases of cervical cancer is about 600,000 per year and the number of deaths is about 340,000, of which about 90% occur in less developed countries and regions; China has 98,900 new cases of cervical cancer and 30,500 deaths, so prevention and control of cervical cancer is urgent ......

Global strategic objectives

In May 2018, WHO called for global action to eliminate cervical cancer, calling on various countries to work together to promote HPV vaccination and cervical cancer screening programs in an effort to reduce the incidence of cervical cancer to less than 4 per 100,000. To achieve the elimination goal, WHO highlighted the importance of reaching the 2030 strategic target, a key indicator of which is the provision of highly effective cervical cancer screening for 70% of women aged 35-45 years.

Current situation of cervical cancer screening in China

At present, there is a lack of experienced cytopathologists in China, limited service capacity in primary medical institutions, and low efficiency in reading radiographs, resulting in a large number of false-positive and false-negative cases and a heavy burden on medical resources. According to statistics, the total female population in China is about 650 million, and 30% of women have never undergone cervical cancer-related screening, and the screening rate is far below the target level.

With the rapid development of artificial intelligence in recent years driven by the industry as well as the state, AI searching in cytopathology has become a very popular combination in the wise information technology of med. Deep learning algorithms are widely applied in the field of medical image recognition, and AI can present the information in images that is difficult to be captured by human eyes such as color texture to form feature data. By combining algorithms such as cell segmentation and cell classification, and integrating the skills of cytopathologists in reading, a computer-aided screening system for cervical cancer can be realized, which significantly improves the efficiency of pathologists and reduces the workload of readers. It is of great significance for early screening of cervical cancer.

Mr. Cai Xiangting, Chairman of LBP, said in the meeting that LBP, as a domestic listed company in pathology, started from liquid-based cytology and now has several pathological technology platforms to provide overall solutions for pathology departments. With the rapid development of AI technology, LBP is actively exploring and developing a cervical cytology AI-aided diagnosis project in cooperation with Peking Union Medical College and Tencent to promote the application of AI technology in cervical cancer screening, change the current situation of shortage of pathologists in China and contribute to the global plan of eliminating cervical cancer in humans. Meanwhile, LBP actively participates in the joint construction of pathology departments in primary hospitals, and strives to provide new technologies and experience into primary pathology departments.

We believe that the AI technology can greatly promote the development of new cervical cancer screening technology, improve the diagnostic efficiency of China's primary hospitals, and solve the problem of insufficient resources and training of primary cytologists. In the meantime, the establishment of a multilateral national expert committee on the prevention and control of cervical cancer and cooperation platform provides the possibility of building a "Belt and Road" multi-country cooperation platform of eliminating cervical cancer.