Stratification of Pulmonary Nodules in Incidental Findings and Lung Cancer Screening

肺癌是最常见的癌症之一，死亡率在英国和全球都是最高的。2010年，英国新增确诊病例约42,026例，有记录的肺癌死亡人数为34,859人。2008年，全球新增肺癌病例160万例，死亡140万例。在此背景下，该项目解决了在胸部计算机断层扫描(CT)中对肺结节(PNS)患者进行分层的巨大挑战和未得到满足的需求。这类发现通常发生在两种情况之一：与肺癌无关的扫描中的偶然发现，例如肺栓塞调查，或肺癌筛查中的偶然发现。在任何一种情况下，问题都是一样的：结节在胸部CT中非常常见，因此要么需要进一步检查，如果足够可疑，要么在6个月、12个月和18个月后进行随访成像。然而，大多数结节不是肿瘤。因此，本项目将为胸部CT结节患者开发新的基于图像的分层技术。该项目有两个广泛的目标。首先，开发新的图像处理技术，使阅读多个胸部检查更加高效。第二，开发新的图像处理技术，必要时结合新的方案，从根本上提高肺部成像的敏感性，特别是特异性。

Lung cancer is one of the most common cancers with the highest mortality rate both in the UK and Worldwide. In 2010, some 42,026 new cases were diagnosed in the UK and 34,859 lung cancer deaths recorded. In 2008, 1.6 million new lung cancer cases and 1.4 million deaths were recorded worldwide. Against this background, this project addresses a hugely challenging and unmet need in stratifying patients with Pulmonary Nodules (PNs), small masses in the lung, in Chest Computed Tomography (CT) scans. Such findings might typically occur in one of two situations: as incidental findings on scans unrelated to lung cancer, e.g. investigations for pulmonary embolism, or in lung cancer screening. In either situation, the problem is the same: nodules are very common in Chest CT and so either require further investigation, if sufficiently suspicious, otherwise follow-up imaging after 6, 12 and 18 months. However, most nodule are not cancers.Therefore, this project will develop new image-based stratification techniques for patients with Chest CT nodules. The project has two broad objectives. First, to develop new image processing technologies to make it much more efficient to read multiple Chest studies. Second, develop new image processing techniques coupled with new protocols where necessary to radically improve both the sensitivity and especially specificity of imaging of the lung.