The UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) has endorsed the use of nine artificial intelligence (AI) technologies for external beam radiotherapy in treating lung, prostate and colorectal cancers.
This move could potentially save radiographers countless hours and alleviate the strain on radiotherapy departments.
Currently, radiographers manually outline healthy organs on CT or MRI scans to ensure radiotherapy doesn't harm healthy cells.
AI can assist in this process, saving between three to 80 minutes per treatment plan.
However, AI-generated contours will still undergo review by healthcare professionals.
Dr Sarah Byron from the medicines and health regulatory body believes AI can help reduce radiotherapy waiting lists.
“These technologies could decrease the time required to complete a plan so they are able to use their expertise planning the most complex of cases of radiotherapy or free up time to deal with other patient-facing tasks," she said.
Health Secretary Steve Barclay said he supported the integration of AI into the NHS for increased efficiency and that an expert group is being established “to work through what skills and training NHS staff may need to make best use of AI.”
Nice is also exploring AI's potential in stroke and chest scans.