Of all the transformative possibilities of artificial intelligence, perhaps the most exciting for many people is its potential to help defeat deadly diseases, including cancer. However, exploiting its potential requires the interdisciplinary work of experts. At Queen’s University Belfast, data scientists collaborate with clinicians, physicists, radiobiologists, radiographers and physiologists to drive breakthrough improvements in cancer diagnosis, treatment and patient quality of life. Masu.
The University is also a partner in a project working to link clinical, pathological, genomic and socio-economic patient data across the island of Ireland, promoting the power of cross-border data sharing to improve healthcare. Leading the way. The aim is to unlock more comprehensive cancer care and research. While traditional cancer therapies tend to be delivered with a one-size-fits-all approach, Queen researchers are focused on developing personalized medicine tailored to a patient’s genetic or molecular makeup, or tumor characteristics. .
Using computer science to process vast amounts of data will help identify potential biomarkers (blood, other body fluids, or tissues). This means patients can not only benefit from receiving the most effective treatment from the start, but also avoid suffering the side effects of treatments that don’t work for them.
“We want to make treatments more precise. We want to first direct the right treatment to the right patient, and then we want to deliver that treatment as precisely as possible.”University’s Patrick G. Johnston Part of the Cancer Research Center.
The center’s biomarker team is currently investigating the use of AI to analyze data from digital pathology images. This is a digitized version of a glass slide of a biopsy, which is traditionally studied under a microscope – but finds patterns that can indicate which cancers behave more aggressively. They may respond better to hormone therapy, which is often offered as treatment.
Although early, definitive clinical trials are showing significant patient benefits. Improving quality of life is important because prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men in the UK, affecting one in eight and the second most common cause in men. “Hormone therapy has many side effects, including fatigue, weight gain, erectile dysfunction, warm flushes, and problems with thinking and memory,” says Jain. “If we could avoid them in some patients using predictive biomarkers, that would be a huge improvement in the way we treat localized prostate cancer.”
Radiomics – the study of big data during scans – also offers opportunities for precision medicine, where prostate cancer data scientists at Queen’s are focusing on CT scans of patients receiving radiation therapy. “The idea of a CT or MRI scan is to show whether there is a lump or bump, recurrence or metastasis,” says Professor Joe O’Sullivan, Jain’s co-director of the Center of Excellence. “But that’s just looking at scans on a screen. We found that when you dig deeper into those scans, you find an incredible amount of data that provides much richer information.”
The heart of the center is the clinic and the patients. And it is the willingness to participate in clinical trials that has contributed to successes, such as stereotactic ablative body radiotherapy (SABR). – and a new combination of radiation therapy that has improved the treatment of very advanced prostate cancer.
Referrals come in on Thursday morning from new patient clinics across Northern Ireland, sometimes even from south of the border. “A big focus for us is to make sure they get the best treatment possible. If possible, we’ll make sure that someone is presenting with a curable disease, is relapsing, or has a very advanced disease.” “Whether you have prostate cancer or not, you have the option of a clinical trial,” says O. sullivan.
“We love the idea that preclinical scientific ideas generated in our own laboratories, where our strengths are data science and radiology, can be tested on patients. We have research and innovation at our core.”
Prostate cancer places a huge burden not only on the patient but also on the wider family. “When a husband or father gets a cancer diagnosis, everything else stops,” says Jain. But thanks to research spearheaded by Queen’s, the results are getting better and better. And teams can play a role that provides benefits beyond treatment for the patients they work with.
“What I really like, especially when I encounter patients who come in scared from their wisdom, is what I hope it gives them,” says O’Sullivan. “First of all, there may be clinical trials that might suit them, but we also have a hand in advancing the field. As a clinician for 25 years, I think you should I really feel that hope is the “x factor” when trying to treat. ”
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