Quantitative Radiology Solutions (QRS) was awarded a second STTR grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) for development of software for automated PET/CT interpretation and reporting. This grant will allow the company to extend the application of  its Automatic Anatomy Recognition (AAR) software to automated disease burden estimation and standardized reporting on PET/CT images.

“I am very enthusiastic about the proposed solution from QRS for automated PET/CT interpretation and reporting, as it will improve the efficiency of PET/CT study interpretation by radiologists and nuclear medicine physicians, while simultaneously helping patients with cancer by optimizing individualized pre-treatment planning and response assessment,” commented Dr. Drew Torigian, Professor of Radiology at Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. According to market research firm IMV, clinical scan volume for PET/CT has been growing at an annual rate of 6% since 2013 with oncology being the leading therapeutic area.

The initial phase focuses on measurement and reporting of disease burden for cancers of the thorax.  Data from the National Cancer Institute show that thoracic cancers and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma account for over 550,000 cases per year. “Automated quantitative analysis of PET/CT images supports the consistent response assessment of new chemotherapeutic agents, and will help us identify patient populations that could benefit from such agents,” said Dr. Stephen Schuster, Director of the Lymphoma Program at the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania.

Work on the grant will begin in August, 2020.