Lung cancer is the leading cause of deaths from cancers worldwide. Most lung cancers are characterized as non-small cell lung cancer and about 30% of patients progress to advanced stages when it has spread to lymph nodes and other organs. In most of the cases, brain is affected first and such patients require additional treatments. However, physicians have no way of knowing where the lung cancer will progress and thus, they frequently treat patients with aggressive therapies as a safe option. A new study has been conducted where AI could predict whether the cancer will spread to brain or not.
A research team from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has come up with a new deep learning-based approach to help predict non-small cell lung cancer in patients. The patients are likely to experience brain metastasis, according to the research published in The Journal of Pathology. The study involved training a deep learning network using hundreds of thousands of image tiles derived from biopsy images of NSCLC patients.
This new study uses AI to study lung biopsy images and then predict whether the cancer will spread to the brain. As of now, there are no predictive tools to help physicians when treating with lung cancer. Their study is an indication that AI methods may be able to make meaning full predictions to impact patient management. The research team has tested AI method to predict brain metastasis and to identify patients who develop no metastasis. Their algorithm was able to predict the eventual development of brain cancer with 87% accuracy. It was highly accurate in predicting which patients would not develop brain metastasis.
With this research, the clinicals could use AI as a tool to predict the outcomes of the disease and better assist in the treatment decisions. Their results need to be validated in a larger study to make accurate predictions and impact care decisions.
The information shared in this blog is for educational purposes only.
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