The FELIX Project: Deep Networks To Detect Pancreatic Neoplasms

Tens of millions of abdominal images are obtained with computed tomography (CT) in the U.S. each year but pancreatic cancers are sometimes not initially detected in these images. We here describe a suite of algorithms (named FELIX) that can recognize pancreatic lesions from CT images without human input. Using FELIX, > 95% of patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas were detected at a specificity of > 95% in patients without pancreatic disease. FELIX may be able to assist radiologists in identifying pancreatic cancers earlier, when surgery and other treatments offer more hope for long-term survival. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. ### Funding Statement This work was funded by the Lustgarten Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research. ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: Ethics committee/IRB of Johns Hopkins Medicine gave ethical approval for this work. I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines and uploaded the relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material as supplementary files, if applicable. Yes All data produced in the present study are available upon reasonable request to the authors.