We all have heard about the latest trends in technology. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming pretty much ever sector around us – education, transportation, finance and entertainment, to name but a few. Healthcare has also been affected. The growth of AI in the healthcare market is expected to grow by 10 times in the next five years, reaching $6.6 billion by 2021. Currently, the top three AI applications in the industry concern robot-assisted surgery, virtual nursing assistants and administrative workflow assistant (Accenture, 2017).
Cancer research is becoming one of the areas, which has benefitted the most from the recent developments in technology. Research has shown that cancer should not be considered one disease, but more a combination of different diseases. For the different patients, the cause of the disease can have a different origin. This makes the treatment process complicated, as it has to be as personalized as possible. There is no one-fits-it-all solution. (Guillén, 2017)
With the latest developments in AI, however, it is now possible to develop effective cancer drug combinations that are specifically tailored to the patient who needs them. This can be achieved by an AI algorithm, called “random forest”, which is used to determine the rules behind making two drugs compatible. According to doctor Olivier Elemento (2017), an associate professor of physiology and biophysics at Weill Cornell Medicine, “the combination of drugs does not only result in a more effective treatment of patients, but it also helps to overcome the problem of drug resistance”.
AI is also being used by an US pharmaceutical start-up, called Berg, to develop an anti-cancer drug called BPM 31510. The company has used samples of cancerous and health tissue from more than 1000 patients. An AI algorithm has been used to process the data and to propose an adequate treatment (Guillén, 2017).
Although there is still no “silver bullet” to cure cancer, technology is bringing us one step further. It gives us access to extensive data and previously unthought-of possibilities to process it. Would it enable us to find cures not just to cancer but also to many other deadly diseases? This remains to be seen but at least for now it gives us hope that we are on the right track!
Sources:
Accenture.com. (2017). Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare | Accenture. [online] Available at: https://www.accenture.com/us-en/insight-artificial-intelligence-healthcare [Accessed 20 Sep. 2017].
Elemento, O. (2017). Artificial Intelligence Helps Identify Effective Cancer Drug Combinations | Newsroom | Weill Cornell Medicine. [online] News.weill.cornell.edu. Available at: https://news.weill.cornell.edu/news/2017/02/artificial-intelligence-helps-identify-effective-cancer-drug-combinations [Accessed 20 Sep. 2017].
Guillén, B. (2017). Fight Against Cancer with Artificial Intelligence and Big Data – OpenMind. [online] OpenMind. Available at: https://www.bbvaopenmind.com/en/fight-against-cancer-with-artificial-intelligence-and-big-data/ [Accessed 20 Sep. 2017].
