ANN SOFTWARE FOR EARLY DETECTION OF OVARIAN CANCER

在美国，卵巢癌是导致妇科癌症死亡的主要原因。对于大多数患者，该病在晚期才被确诊，5年生存率低（< 30%）。尽管化疗逐渐改善，但治愈率在过去几十年中并没有显著提高，局部疾病患者（80-90%）和远处转移患者（5-20%）的长期生存率存在巨大差异，这表明需要一种适用于高危人群的非侵入性但有效的检测方法来早期发现卵巢癌。本项目基于前期对卵巢良性肿块与恶性肿块鉴别的研究，寻求将人工神经网络（ANN）技术应用于基于多种血清标志物和其他临床输入的早期卵巢癌筛查问题。最近完成的第一阶段试点项目通过(1)收集合作组织的现有数据，(2)分析相关生物标志物的预测价值，(3)开发初步的人工神经网络，(4)使用独立的测试数据验证人工神经网络的可行性。第一阶段的成功完成现在促进了第二阶段活动的开始，以开发筛选系统的生产版本，并通过多项临床研究启动大规模验证。拟议的商业应用：与其他技术相比，能够检测早期卵巢癌的人工神经网络软件在特异性、敏感性和预测价值方面有足够的提高，在筛查高危人群方面具有明确的商业价值。Horns目前提供一种基于互联网的临床信息处理服务，称为ProstAsure，用于检测前列腺癌，该服务使用人工神经网络技术开发。

Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death from gynecologic cancer in the US. For most patients, the disease is first diagnosed at an advanced stage, and the 5-year survival rate is low (< 30%). Despite incremental improvement in chemotherapy, the cure rate has not improved significantly in the past decades, The dramatic difference in long-term survival between patients with local disease (80-90%) and those with distant metastases (5-20%) suggests the need for a non-invasive, yet effective test applicable to at-risk population groups to detect ovarian cancer in early stages. Building upon prior research in differentiating malignant from benign ovarian masses, this project seeks to apply artificial neural network (ANN) technology to the problem of screening for early-stage ovarian cancer based on a variety of serum markers and other clinical inputs. The recently completed Phase I pilot project validated the feasibility by (1) assembling existing data from collaborating Organizations, (2) analyzing the predictive value of relevant biomarkers, (3) developing a preliminary ANN, and (4) validating the ANN using independent test data. The successful completion of Phase I now facilitates the commencement of Phase II activities to develop a production version of the screening system and to initiate broad-scale validation through multiple clinical studies. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS: ANN software capable of detecting early-stage ovarian cancer with sufficient improvement in specificity, sensitivity, and predictive value over alternative techniques would have clear commercial value in screening high-risk populations. Horns presently offers as a commercial product an Internet-based clinical information processing service, called ProstAsure, developed using ANN technology, for the detection of prostate cancer.