AI Tool Automates Radiotherapy Planning for Cervical and Prostate Cancer

Treatment planning is labor-intensive and can delay care for cervical, prostate, and head and neck cancers that depend on precise radiation delivery. Hospitals also face growing case volumes that strain existing planning workflows. To help address these challenges, a new multinational study reports that an artificial intelligence tool can generate clinically acceptable radiotherapy plans quickly across diverse care settings.

Researchers at University College London (UCL) and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) led an international evaluation of an AI-based software for radiotherapy planning. The effort aimed to determine whether automated plans could meet international best-practice standards that are typically produced by oncologists and medical physicists.

The software automates two core steps of planning by identifying target structures on CT scans and determining optimal radiation beam configurations. These tasks traditionally require many hours over several weeks because they depend on the availability of specialized personnel. By accelerating contouring and beam optimization, the tool is intended to maintain plan quality while reducing turnaround time.

The ARCHERY trial enrolled more than 1,000 patients with cervical, prostate, and head and neck cancers at hospitals in India, South Africa, Jordan, and Malaysia. Investigators assessed whether the AI-generated plans reached high-quality thresholds suitable for routine use across resource settings. Results presented at the European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology (ESTRO 2026) congress in Stockholm showed high-standard plans in more than 95% of cervical cancer cases and in 85% of prostate cancer cases, with head and neck results expected later this year.

The findings are notable given the global access gap: 94% of cervical cancer deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries, where only 10% of people who need radiotherapy receive it in low-income nations and 40% in middle-income nations. Radiotherapy remains the main curative treatment for cervical cancer. Investigators report that automating planning can reduce turnaround to just over an hour, which could help bridge workforce shortages and shorten waiting times.

“These results show that for cervical cancer, this AI technology achieves a very high standard, supporting its routine use in hospitals globally. In doing so, it can help meet the World Health Organization's cervical cancer elimination initiative for treatment. It can also be used to support the delivery of prostate cancer treatments in any country setting,” said Professor Ajay Aggarwal, chief investigator, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and Guy's & St Thomas' NHS Trust, London.

“In a usual workflow, planning radiotherapy can take many hours over several weeks, as it depends on the availability of specialized staff. This AI technology can reduce that time to just over an hour. This is important as it has the potential to reduce waiting times and widen access to this life-saving treatment,” said Professor Aggarwal.

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