'AI to be a major game changer in cancer detection, treatment'

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is making great leaps in medical science. Scientific journal ‘Radiology', in its recently published study on the new AI system AsymMiraim, has revealed that AI can help detect breast cancer in five years.

This study can help save the lives of tens of thousands of women across the world who die from the disease owing to late detection.

Surging breast cancer cases in India

In February, the government revealed before the Lok Sabha that breast cancer was the most common type of cancer in the world in 2022. The then Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare quoted data collated by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a part of the World Health Organization (WHO). Around 6.6 lakh women died owing to the disease, of which the highest - 98,337 - were reported from India in 2022. Late detection is one of the prime reasons for the higher number of fatalities in India. Thus, AI can play a revolutionary role in bringing down deaths and improving the survival rate of breast cancer patients.

Early detection

In 2019, a team from Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) came up with a learning model to predict the possibility of developing malignancy in the future by simply going through a mammogram. Using their model, the researchers studied the mammograms of more than 60,000 patients who have already been diagnosed with breast cancer. They discovered the subtle patterns in breast tissue that are precursors to malignancy, the CSAIL website stated.

According to Dr Chaitra Deshpande, Radiation Oncologist at Onco-Life Cancer Centre, AI can help in new screening methods for most cancers. She is also hopeful that in the future, it will come up with ways to screen and treat head and neck cancers, which are usually detected late. AI tools are also helpful in determining pre-malignant tumours, said Dr Deshpande.

Dr Atul Narayankar, Consultant Medical Oncologist at Wockhardt Hospital, Mira Road, said for prostate and colon cancer, AI might be able to establish cancer cells in a patient even before traditional procedures of diagnoses such as biopsy or colonoscopy are done. He said a few years ago, the US Food and Drug Administration approved GI Genius for detecting lesions. According to the FDA website, GI Genius is the first device that uses AI-based machine learning to help medical practitioners detect suspected tumours in the colon in real-time during a colonoscopy.

New approaches to treatment

AI is also making great strides in treating cancers. Dr Deshpande highlighted that AI-based synchrony can help in the treatment of various cancers, with better precision and fewer side effects.

Radiation therapy is one of the treatments given to cure patients and prevent cancer cells from coming back. However, it does have side effects.

A resident from South Mumbai, who did not wish to be named, revealed that she suffered a heart ailment following her radiation therapy for stage-3 cancer.

Dr Deshpande said AI can help in protecting other organs from radiation.

"Let's say we are treating breast cancer with radiation. Though the cancer might be present only in the breast, radiation will also have harmful effects on the nearby organs such as the lungs and the heart. However, with AI, we can target only the area that has cancer, thereby reducing the side effects of radiation on the other parts of the body," said Dr Deshpande.

Dr Narayankar said as AI can bring better precision, it can help more patients in getting treatment on a given day.

"Around 15-20 patients can be given radiation therapy in a given day. With AI, more patients can be given radiation, which will bring down their waiting time," said Dr Narayankar, adding that AI can also help in detecting mutation accordingly suggesting precision in targeted therapy. He also said that AI can establish models to detect future mutations.

Speaking about the role of AI in providing remote counselling to patients, Dr Narayankar said, "Let's assume a patient cannot go to the medical centre to receive treatment, AI can feed their data, and monitor and manage side effects."

Concerns

Along with several benefits, there are also a few concerns about the role of AI models in the field of medical field. There are fears of AI eventually replacing or reducing medical practitioners in radiology and pathology. However, the best outcomes are likely to be established only if medical practitioners augment the use of AI models, and feel experts.

"At the end of the day, an AI model will have to be provided with data. And eventually, it is the doctors who take a call on the exact course of treatment for patients," said Dr Narayankar.

Dr Deshpande has also pointed out that while AI-based synchrony treatments are expensive, the costs are likely to come down once the technology catches up.

Speaking on similar lines, Dr Narayankar said that fewer patients were being detected in India until some years back. But now with a steep surge in cancer cases, more hospitals and medical centres are likely to adopt AI-based models, which will eventually bring the costs down. When asked if AI models could be adopted on a national or state level for cancer diagnoses, he said that it is very much a possibility in the future.

In January, the Apollo Cancer Centre in Bengaluru launched India's first AI-Precision Oncology Centre (POC) which is likely to help oncologists provide the best possible results to patients in a time-bound manner.

Talking about the centre, Dr Vijay Agarwal, Lead and Senior Consultant, Medical Oncology said, "The Centre will support new patient identification through auto-alerts to operational teams. Patient SOS auto-alerts to operational teams on deteriorating health outcomes for intervention and the necessary clinical escalation form another key feature of the centre."

How does it make a difference in other fields?

Across medical specialities, AI can reduce the burnout experienced by practitioners by automating administrative tasks and leaving doctors to focus solely on the treatment and providing better care for patients. This is crucial at a time when several countries are facing a shortage of medical practitioners.

AI models are also being used in tuberculosis (TB) screening. A startup named Qure.ai has been providing its AI device for TB screening to many health facilities in Mumbai for the past four years.

Despite the challenges and concerns, the future of AI in the medical field looks promising as there is hope that it can make great strides in treating major illnesses.