Exploring the Prospect of Enhancing Cancer Radiotherapy in Hospitals and Health Care Centers in Nigeria Through Artificial Intelligence: A Promising Frontier

Abstract

Radiotherapy remains a cornerstone in the treatment and management of cancer, however, current developments in artificial intelligence (AI) have shown promising opportunities in this field. Hence, the objective of this paper is to assess the need for integrating artificial intelligence to enhance cancer radiotherapy in hospitals and healthcare centers in Nigeria, using the twelve radiotherapy centers across the country. The article highlights the need for Nigerian hospitals and healthcare centers to start working towards embracing and integrating AI techniques into her radiotherapy (RT) procedures for optimized cancer treatment. Also, important groundwork required to ease the integration process is discussed. To highlight the need for Nigerian hospitals and healthcare centers to embrace and integrate AI into their radiotherapy procedures, a state-of-the-art review of accessible literatures from Scopus, PubMed, and Google Scholar was carried out. Finally, several applications of AI (machine/deep learning) techniques in radiotherapy were identified. Also, the current status of radiotherapy services in Nigeria and factors hindering its marriage with AI has been highlighted. Necessary groundwork required for a seamless AI integration was equally highlighted.