Artificial Intelligence is being studied to improve cancer care

BOSTON - Artificial intelligence has been in the headlines a lot recently and there are two new ways it's being studied to help improve lung and breast cancer care.

Lung cancer kills more people worldwide than the three next deadliest cancers combined, largely because it's hard to detect at an early stage. Now researchers at MIT and Mass General Hospital have developed an artificial intelligence tool called "Sybil" which is able to detect lung nodules on CT scan and predict the risk of a patient developing a future lung cancer within six years.

At the same time, engineers in Canada have developed AI technology that can predict if women with breast cancer would benefit from chemotherapy prior to surgery. That would allow some patients to avoid the serious side effects of chemo and allow for better surgical outcomes in those patients.

Both of these AI applications allow for doctors to tailor the best treatment to each individual patient. 

In:
• Cancer

Mallika Marshall, MD

Mallika Marshall, MD is an Emmy-award-winning journalist and physician who has served as the HealthWatch Reporter for CBS Boston/WBZ-TV for over 20 years. A practicing physician Board Certified in both Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, Dr. Marshall serves on staff at Harvard Medical School and practices at Massachusetts General Hospital at the MGH Chelsea Urgent Care and the MGH Revere Health Center, where she is currently working on the frontlines caring for patients with COVID-19. She is also a host and contributing editor for Harvard Health Publications (HHP), the publishing division of Harvard Medical School.

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