Enhancing Cancer Immunotherapy with Artificial Intelligence

Physicians may soon use artificial intelligence (AI) and medical images to study tumors without a biopsy. The techniques developed to study tumors in this new way are described in the September 1 issue of The Lancet Oncology. Along with helping physicians learn more about tumors without surgery, the new approach should help identify which cancer patients will respond best to cutting-edge immunotherapy treatments. The AI techniques could be useful for “predicting clinical outcomes of patients treated with immunotherapy when validated by further prospective randomized trials,” the authors wrote. Immunotherapy treatments are helping some people survive cancers once considered a death sentence, including mesothelioma. Unfortunately, these therapies don’t work for everyone. The French researchers behind The Lancet study believe using AI to determine the effectiveness of immunotherapy is a welcome addition to the cancer treatment arsenal. “Development of new biomarkers that predict response to immunotherapy are needed,” the authors wrote. “Our study attempts to address this need by proposing a CT-based biomarker, which could be useful and accessible given the widespread availability and routine use of CT.” Putting CT Scans and Artificial Intelligence to Work in Cancer Care An important goal was to predict which tumors respond best to immunotherapy treatments, based only on features that can be discerned from a CT scan. The researchers first used existing cancer datab...
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