Victoria is a PhD student focusing on the early detection of upper GI cancers from routine blood tests measured in UK primary care data.

Plain English Summary

Upper GI cancer is a group that includes cancers of the stomach, food-pipe, pancreas, liver, and gallbladder. These cancers have poor survival rates. Part of the reason for this is that they are difficult to detect, so the cancer is often advanced by the time it is diagnosed. In this project, we are trying to find ways that AI can help detect upper GI cancer early. Patients with these cancers often don’t notice signs or symptoms until they are already very ill, and the cancer is at an advanced stage, so we are looking at blood test results that are measured often at the GP for hidden signs that show the patient has cancer. AI can process these tests results and predict people who are likely to have cancer. If we can develop a model that can detect upper GI cancers earlier, with more research and testing, it could be used in the future to help doctors decide which patients to refer for more tests. We hope that this would help to improve survival rates.