About the project
The RACOON-RESCUE study is a research project with the aim of improving the imaging staging of paediatric non-Hodgkin's lymphomas (NHL) using radiological diagnostics, avoiding invasive interventions to clarify residual structures and developing new image-based biomarkers.
The reference assessment of diagnosis and therapy according to standardised criteria for the 160 children with NHL each year ensures a high standard of care. In addition to invasive diagnostics such as biopsies and lumbar and bone marrow punctures, radiological procedures are an essential part of the diagnosis of the spread of the disease and essential for assessing the response. For paediatric NHL, however, these procedures have not yet been standardised or quantified and there is no reference assessment.
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The overall goal of RACOON-RESCUE is to reduce the morbidity and mortality of patients with paediatric non-Hodgekin's lymphoma (NHL).
To achieve this goal, the project will focus on the following sub-goals:
- Improvement of radiological staging through structured reporting and AI-based image analysis,
- Identification of predictive image parameters initially and during restaging examinations through automated tumour segmentation and the extraction of imaging biomarkers,
- Development of a prediction concept for therapy outcome, with a focus on the NHL subtype.
The project is divided into six work packages that build on each other:
- Creation of ethical and legal framework conditions
- Preparation of the infrastructure
- Preparation and transfer of image data
- Annotation, segmentation and structured evaluation of the image data
- Fusion of clinical parameters and image data
- Development of image-based biomarkers and predictive models
The progress and control of the project as well as good communication between the NUM sites is ensured by centralised project management.