ISLAMABAD: Islamabad’s Dr. Akbar Niazi Teaching Hospital has joined hands with a Chinese medical technology company to make use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for the detection of cervical cancer in women, Radio Pakistan reported this week.
Cancer is becoming more prevalent in Pakistan, with 19 million new cancer cases recorded in 2020, according to data cited in a 2022 study published in the Front Nutr medical journal.
As per a 2023 report by the HPV Information Center which compiles, processes, and disseminates country-specific information related to HPV and cervical cancer, Pakistan has a population of 73.8 million women ages 15 years and older who are at risk of developing cervical cancer.
Current estimates indicate that every year 5,008 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer
and 3,197 die from the disease. Cervical cancer ranks as the third most frequent cancer among women in Pakistan and the second most frequent cancer among women between 15 and 44
years of age.
“This collaboration, driven by the pursuit of cutting-edge research and development, aims to redefine the landscape of cervical cancer screening for Pakistani women,” Radio Pakistan reported about ANTH’s collaboration with the Chinese firm, which the news outlet did not name.
The CEO of ANTH, Yasir Khan Niazi, described the initiative as a “pivotal step toward seamless integration of technology into the fabric of cancer screening for Pakistani women.”
More than 70 percent of cancer patients report with a very advanced stage of malignancy, which is a cause of the high rate of mortality in Pakistan among cervical cancer patients, according to a 2017 study in the Journal of the Pakistan Medical Association.
“We covered studies cited during the previous 11 years (2005-2015) that reviewed many aspects of cervical cancer in Pakistan, including epidemiology, risk factors, screening test and their barriers, clinical presentation and prevention,” the study said.
“Our analysis indicated that infections associated with human papillomavirus posed the greatest risk of carcinoma and consequent mortality rate, especially because of low socioeconomic status and poor knowledge of screening. Emphasis is laid on a need to organize proper screening program taking into account what already is known about Pakistani women.”
