Vera Catharina Keil

Amsterdam UMC

In short, Vera Catharina Keil's research entails the following: 

GLIOCARE: Glioma Imaging Omitting Contrast through Artificial intelligence and Risk Evaluation  

'The GLIOCARE project investigates if brain tumor magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can be performed without the injection of gadolinium-based contrast agents whilst maintaining diagnostic accuracy without delay. To reach this goal we rely on three pillars: artificial intelligence, advanced MRI techniques and the exploration of human assessment power without post-contrast sequences. Our fourth pillar is the construction of a large glioma imaging database for continued AI-research. Since brain tumor imaging is currently fully dependent on gadolinium contrast, which is invasive, costly and potentially harmful for health and environment, our project will show valuable directions towards overcoming this dependency. Future patients shall receive diagnostically superior imaging, despite being less invasive.

Amsterdam UMC, locatie VUmc, is the main site of investigation with cooperation partners in the Netherlands and abroad.' 

Brief summary of progress / results November 2024

GLIOCARE has made substantial progress. We are nearly finished with the human-comparison benchmark research for our AI-based project on gadolinium-based contrast agent omission in brain tumors, and have published relevant and well-seen benchmark papers for human diagnostic performance. We were also able to gain a prestigious consecutive grant for the publication of our glioma data and extend research questions winning the EUCAIM open call 2024. The next year will hopefully bring several publications on AI-based diagnostic predictions for which crucial research steps are currently under way.

Brief summary of progress / results November 2023

In the past year, the grant of Hanarth Fonds allowed us to build a brain tumor imaging database which will serve our project, GLIOCARE, but also future groups of scientists. We could hire two fantastic Ph.D. students to pursue the AI aims of GLIOCARE in the upcoming years. First publications are already online.