According to Scripps News, artificial intelligence (AI) has shown promise in treating and detecting various types of cancers. A group of researchers from the University of Toronto and Insilico Medicine has developed a drug that can treat hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) or liver cancer using an AI database called AlphaFold. The researchers used this database to develop a novel molecule that could bind the target and treat HCC, as per a study published in Chemical Science. However, the drug still requires clinical testing before it can be launched to treat cancer in hospitals. In another study published in the journal JAMA Network Open, experts from the BC Cancer and University of British Columbia have developed an AI model that can accurately predict the survivor rates of patients with cancers. They analyzed the survival rates of more than 47,000 patients from six months to three and five years. They found that the AI model could paint a more complete picture of patient outcomes based on details such as the age of the patient, the type of cancer, underlying health conditions, past substance use, and family histories. The AI model uses a statistical language model referred to as ‘bag-of-words’ to analyze the text in an oncologist’s notes. It counts the word occurrences in a document, determining which of 5,000 different medical or health terms are used within the patient’s initial consultation document to make a prediction. The AI model also factors in a variety of data, such as the type of cancer and its staging, medical comorbidities, a patient’s current functioning capabilities, age, and current symptoms, among others. The researchers claimed that this AI model can produce a more nuanced assessment than traditional methods.
