Can AI be used to treat Cancer?

In short, YES, it can, and it is now. However, this field is only emerging, and we might have to wait until we see the full power of AI in Cancer treatment. Here is an example of how it is used already

MATCHMAKERS, an international team of researchers, is trying to solve a big problem in cancer treatment. All cells in the human body have antigens, unique proteins on the membrane of the cell, that help immune cells recognise the cells of the body from cancer cells, bacteria or any other foreign cells and destroy them. Immune cells have receptors that bind to these unique antigens and cause a response.

However, because cancer cells can mutate uncontrollably, they can develop different antigens. Even two patients with the same cancer type can have completely different antigens on their cancer cells. This is a significant problem when investigating the variable efficacy of immunotherapy, a type of cancer therapy focused on helping the immune system to recognise and attack cancer. Because the antigens of cancer cells in each patient can not be easily found, it is very hard to predict the responses of each treatment. This is where MATCHMAKERS come in.

They are developing specially trained AI to identify the antigens that immune cells target, which currently requires expensive and slow lab tests. By training the AI on large databases of information, they plan to teach it to recognise which antigens each receptor of the immune cells targets. This will also allow to match the patient with correct immunotherapy, which can significantly. The problem is that MATCHMAKERS need large amounts of data to train the AI, but they are working on it.

Soon, AI can not only help understand immunotherapy better and administer targeted treatments but also create personalised vaccines

Source: https://news.cancerresearchuk.org/2024/10/31/making-immunotherapy-work-for-more-people-matchmakers-t-cell-receptors/