Villepinte, Montpellier, Villejuif, Angers, December 3, 2024
Guerbet, Intrasense, Gustave Roussy and the University Hospital of Angers receive a €5.9M financing from Bpifrance for Liflow®, innovative solution dedicated to oncology imaging
Guerbet (FR0000032526 GBT) worldwide expert in contrast agents and medical imaging solutions, Intrasense (FR0011179886 - ALINS), expert in medical imaging software solutions and developer of Myrian® and Liflow®, Gustave Roussy, 1st cancerology centre in France and Europe and Angers University Hospital (« Partners ») announce they have received €5.9M in funding from Bpifrance’s “Innovation in Medical Imaging” call for proposals. The Oncology Assistant (trade name: Liflow®) project, carried by the four Partners uses AI (artificial intelligence) to facilitate and optimize the follow-up of cancer patients. It benefits from public funding to ensure its future development.
Supporting innovation in medical imaging
The “Innovation in Medical Imaging” call for proposals launched in 2023 by Bpifrance as part of its “Digital Health” acceleration strategy aims to stimulate the development and the structuring of a medical imaging branch of excellence in France, by supporting innovative and high-potential companies.
Guerbet, Intrasense, the Gustave Roussy Institute and Angers University Hospital joined forces in a unique consortium to participate in this call for proposals together. The Partners presented the Oncology Assistant project, with a dedicated imaging solution for oncology follow-up enhanced by artificial intelligence algorithms (Liflow®).
Selected from many French submissions presented in September 2023, the project carried by the Partners differentiates itself by its innovative aspect in the digital and health sectors. With growing numbers of cancer cases worldwide and a need for increased accuracy for imaging professionals, the development of an oncology follow-up software solution, natively embedding several AI algorithms dedicated to multiple organs, will change clinical practice. By providing access to oncology follow-up innovative indicators such as automated calculation and measurement of the tumour load, the project also has a goal to improve patients follow-up. This innovative indicator will enable medical teams to optimize treatments1.
The project aims to contribute to the development of a CT-TAP (thorax-abdomen-pelvis) analysis solution in clinical routine to gain diagnosis accuracy and significantly improve cancer patients care.
“The financial support of Bpifrance will allow us to accelerate the development of a major innovative solution for oncology imaging follow-up. By relying on multi-organ AIs our platform will enable radiologists to simultaneously detect and follow-up lesions in all organs. In collaboration with our academic partners, we will demonstrate how this progress offers a beneficial and significant efficiency gain for oncology imaging professionals and patients.” says François Nicolas, Vice President in charge of R&D at Guerbet and Chairman of the Board of Intrasense, a group subsidiary.
Funding for oncology imaging
As part of the global €5.9M financial package awarded to the Partners by Bpifrance, Guerbet, project leader, received €1.9M to develop a foundational AI model enabling lesion detection and follow-up in the main organs (lung, liver, bones, lymph nodes, peritoneum, kidneys, pancreas). These AIs will meet the growing needs for automation and efficiency in oncology imaging.
Intrasense, with a €1.7M financial help will ensure the application development of Liflow® solution integrating Guerbet’s AIs in an optimized workflow. Intrasense will carry the regulatory certification of the solution and of the artificial intelligence algorithms. The funding allocated to the project will enable to overcome technological and clinical hurdles, and thus accelerate the development of Liflow®.
Angers University Hospital and the Gustave Roussy Institute with fundings of €0.9M and €1.4M, will bring a scientific and clinical expertise to every step of the project. They will play a crucial role in medical support developing products, ensuring that every innovation meets radiologists’ clinical needs.
Bpifrance’s support will allow us to carry on several clinical studies aiming to demonstrate the impact and the efficiency of new technologies on daily clinical practice. The main objective is to provide healthcare professionals with tools allowing a faster evaluation of the patients’ response (or non-response) to treatments, leading to a therapeutic optimization and improved care.
“Our research in tumour load imaging and anthropometrics at the Gustave Roussy Institute, conducted for several years now, convinced us of the importance of integrating these prognosis and predictive biomarkers in patient care1. This project, to term, will enable its use in a clinical routine workflow”, says Pr Nathalie Lassau, university professor and hospital practitioner at Paris-Saclay University in radiology, radiologist at Gustave Roussy Institute.
“To integrate AI into the care process, we needed to create a tool that was not single-tasked but that assisted radiologists in their complex work of interpretation. The analysis of CT-TAP in oncology is time-consuming and tedious; Liflow® should reduce the time needed for interpretation and improve performance. It will be a major change”, says Pr Christophe Aubé, university professor and hospital practitioner, Head of the radiology department at Angers University Hospital.
A project punctuated by regular milestones over five years
The first year of the project will be dedicated to developing Liflow® platform and the overall innovative functionalities: oncology exam analysis automation by anatomical area, facilitated access to multi-organ AIs results, automated calculation of tumour evolution. From 1st half 2025, an advanced version of the platform will be revealed, integrating three applications based on artificial intelligence. Among them, two are specifically developed by Guerbet to offer a precise analysis and help in reviewing liver, bones, and lung lesions. To do so, a data base of over 100.000 3D segmented lesions was built and will continue to be fed to reach 250.000 lesions in 2025.
During the five years of the Oncology Assistant project, Liflow® application will continue to be enhanced by the gradual addition of new applications based on artificial intelligence. These innovations will cover a large panel of organs and biomarkers, enabling the anticipation of future needs in terms of diagnosis, follow-up and treatment of cancer patients.
“We thank Bpifrance for their trust and this financial support that demonstrate the quality of our innovations for health. This funding will allow us to accelerate the development of our solution and to add differentiating major elements to optimize oncology imaging analysis and follow-up. This ambitious project, led by a unique consortium made by prestigious actors, will enable us to develop a major innovation for oncology imaging follow-up. Together we are willing to take on new challenges” adds Alexandre Salvador, CEO of Intrasense.
1 Lama Dawi, Younes Belkouchi, Littisha Lawrance, Othilie Gautier • Samy Ammari,, … & Nathalie Lassau, (2024) - Liquid Biopsy versus CT: Comparison of Tumor Burden - Quantification in 1065 Patients with Metastases. Radiology 2024; 313(2):e232674.
