Incidental Detection Of Prostate Cancer With Computed Tomography Scans

Monday Lunch Livestream

With Dr Ruwan Tennakoon

20 September 2021

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and computer vision are gaining popularity as decision support tools for cancer diagnosis and intervention. As a result, they have opened up innovative opportunities in the early detection of cancer.

Hear from Dr Ruwan Tennakoon, Lecturer in Artificial Intelligence at RMIT University, discuss his latest work on developing an Artificial Intelligence (AI) tool for incidental detection of prostate cancer with computed tomography (CT) scans.

Dr Tennakoon’s AI system is capable of analysing CT scans of asymptomatic patients who had a CT scan of the abdomen and pelvis for another reason resulting in detection of prostate cancer. The work done in collaboration with St Vincent’s Hospital shows promise in early detection of prostate cancer and has significant implications for future incidental screening for other cancers.

Dr Ruwan Tennakoon

Dr Ruwan Tennakoon is a lecturer of AI in the School of Computing Technologies at RMIT University. His main research interests are in computer vision, machine learning and medical image analysis. He has published over 30 peer-reviewed papers in international conferences and journals including CVPR, IEEE-TPAMI, IEEE-TIP, IEEE-TMI and, holds 3 patents. He has led and contributed to several projects in the areas of quantitative image analysis and computer-aided diagnosis with industry partners like Ford motor company, IBM Research, St Vincent's Hospital, and the Erasmus Medical Centre in the Netherlands.

Dr Tennakoon holds a BSc (Hons) in Electrical and Electronics Engineering (2007) and a PhD in Computer Vision (2015). He has also completed post-doctoral training at the RMIT - School of Engineering and IBM Research. He is currently a member of the RMIT AI Innovation Lab and the Intelligent Automation Research Group.