Head and neck cancer diagnosis revolutionised by imaging technology

Head and neck cancers have increased considerably in the last 30 years. In the UK, around 12,200 people are diagnosed with head and neck cancer annually, according to Macmillan.

The researchers from the University of Helsinki, in collaboration with the University of Turku and the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine in Germany, used a method based on machine learning and analysed hundreds of biobank patient samples at the level of accuracy of individual cells.

The study's most significant finding was the development of an imaging analysis technique that combined analyses of biomarkers of cell behaviour with morphological analyses of single-cell shape and the structure of the entire tumour tissues.