AI technology helps in choosing the right treatment for patients suffering from brain cancer

Artificial intelligence (AI) has changed the game for humans in the last few years. Its impact in the medical field has proved to be massive in every way possible. Ailments that were "incurable" now have hope attached to them because of the scope AI is providing. Researchers have combined AI with the available data to figure out better methods of treatment, recently doing so for brain cancer, per Daily Mail. One of the biggest issues that doctors face while deciding on the treatment of this debilitating disease is predicting how the tumors will react. If they undertake a particular path like radiation and the tumors don't shrink, then it is time wasted, allowing the condition to spread further. The assistance of AI will aid doctors in predicting the impact of any treatment accurately and proceeding accordingly.

The system has been developed by researchers working at King's College London. They fed the system a dataset of 10,000 MRI scans of different types of cancers. The dataset included information about what happened with the patient, which method worked and whether a treatment plan had to be dropped. The scans helped the system understand the survival rate related to each scenario. Each scan aids the system in becoming more accurate with its prediction. Now, it has reached a position where it can predict whether a patient can survive eight months after chemotherapy.

"We applied deep learning to predict whether glioblastoma patients will survive the first eight months after completing radiotherapy," Alysha Chelliah, who was involved in the study, shared about the process of setting up the AI system. "This approach is intended to improve the ability to identify patients who require early second-line treatment or clinical trial enrolment, compared to those showing initial treatment response." In such cases, time is of valuable essence. Armed with the information on whether a particular line of treatment is likely to succeed, doctors can ensure that they can give the best chance to their patients with their plan.

"This study was motivated by a clinically attuned and critical research question regarding aggressive brain tumors, and delivered by leveraging cutting-edge artificial intelligence," Dr. Thomas Booth, who was involved in the research, said about the objective behind it, "Whilst less common than other cancers, the devastation is disproportionate with a two-year survival rate of 18 percent." The team believes this AI system will remove the need for multiple scans that delay the treatment. "Instead of trying to grapple with interpreting every non-specific follow-up brain scan, we simply looked at one routine scan after radiotherapy and gave an accurate prediction using artificial intelligence to answer a simple question: which patients will not survive the next eight months," Booth said. "The AI was able to give us an immediate and accurate prediction, which means clinicians can empower patients to make choices about their treatment."

Brain cancer is one of the deadliest cancers to exist in the world. It has claimed millions of lives, like that of Alexandros Hurdakis. The sweet boy of 5 who should have been enjoying life to the fullest was facing this debilitating condition, which ultimately claimed his life. Before that, his community gathered to give him the Halloween of his dreams. "It's humbling and heartbreaking to witness this community come together every single time to support families like ours," Ariane Clark, the mother, said in an Instagram post about the parade on Thursday. "I had chills, I cried a lot, I smiled a lot. This place, I swear, there is nothing like it."