AI judges the effectiveness of cancer immunotherapy

Cancer and malignant tumor diagnosis technology using AI is evolving, and it is said that AI can detect breast cancer, lung cancer, and brain tumors with higher precision than humans. In the midst of this, a technology has been developed that can determine the effectiveness of cancer treatment early through AI.

Cancer immunotherapy is a new attempt to treat cancer by the immunity that was originally in the human body, unlike anticancer drugs that directly act on cancer. However, only 20% of all cancer patients can expect the effect of immunotherapy. In addition, treatment costs are high, and in the United States, the cost of immunotherapy is said to be 200,000 dollars a year.

Moreover, since immunotherapy basically does not have a biomarker that is an indicator of therapeutic effect, the effect of treatment cannot be confirmed by blood tests. Therefore, in order to check whether the treatment was effective, there was a problem that the treatment had to be continued at the risk of enormous cost and side effects.

Western Reserve University’s research team developed a technology that uses AI to identify changes in cancer cell manipulation to confirm the effectiveness of immunotherapy. It is said that 139 patients with non-small cell lung cancer who were treated at two medical institutions have succeeded in learning AI using CT scan data and solid cancer treatment effect determination RECIST result data and determining treatment results in cancer tissue changes.

If you look at the CT scan results after treatment, it seems that cancerous tissues are shrinking on the ineffective patient side, so you can see how difficult it is to check the treatment effect only with the CT scan results. It is said that using the AI developed this time was able to accurately determine the suitability of immunotherapy from the treatment results after 2 to 3 cycles.

The research team said that, for example, if the tumor vessels are destroyed, the tumor may appear enlarged even though the treatment effect is effective. It is revealed that it is a good indicator of whether or not is effective.

Although immunotherapy changes the ecosystem around cancer, it is still too expensive, and financial toxicity is plaguing cancer patients, and 42% of cancer patients lose their savings within a year. They expressed the view that the results of this study will have a positive effect on cancer patients in economic terms. Related information can be found here .