Yale Cancer Center Team Receives American Cancer Society Grant for AI Based Prostate Cancer Treatments

Sanjay Aneja, MD, assistant professor of therapeutic radiology, has been awarded an American Cancer Society Research Scholar Grant. The four-year, approximately $1 million award titled, “Studying the Utility of Deep Learning Derived MRI Imaging Biomarkers for Localized Prostate Cancer,” aims to leverage innovative AI-based algorithms developed in the Aneja Lab to personalize prostate cancer treatments.

Over the past 5 years the Aneja Lab has developed novel methods to generate imaging biomarkers that aid in cancer treatment selection. For the ACS award, the research team will focus on conducting a national validation of their prostate AI-based algorithms on a diverse, multi-institutional patient cohort. The project will also integrate their algorithm into the electronic health record, optimizing how physicians use the algorithm, and later test the algorithm using two multi-institutional randomized controlled trials conducted, in part, at Yale. If successful, the team will have developed a low-cost, non-invasive MRI biomarker that will personalize treatments for patients with prostate cancer.

“Prostate cancer remains a significant public health concern and is the second leading cause of cancer death among men in the United States,” says Aneja. “MRI biomarkers represent a cost-effective and promising strategy to aid in risk stratification and treatment selection for men with localized prostate cancer.”

Project efforts will be led by Aneja Lab members Sajid Hossain, MD, MS, Durga Sritharan, BS, Saahil Chadha, BA, and Omar Hossain, BS. The American Cancer Society’s Research Scholar Grants support independent, self-directed investigators pursuing research across the cancer continuum.