Artificial intelligence helps treat cancer patients successfully

Scientists have utilised the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to successfully treat a patient with advanced cancer. The progression of the disease was successfully stopped and helped  the patient to resume back to a normal lifestyle. 

The research was conducted in Singapore and CURATE.AI was used along with combination of novel drugs.  

The patient was suffering from metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (MCRPC) and was given novel drug combination consisting of investigational drug ZEN-3694 and enzalutamide, an approved prostate cancer drug.

Metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer is when the cancer has spread to parts of the body other than the prostate and it is able to grow and spread even though drugs or other treatments to lower the amount of male sex hormones are being used to manage the cancer.

The team utilised CURATE.AI to continuously identify the optimal doses of each drug to result in a durable response.

"Dynamic dosing in cancer therapy is not commonly used. In fact, drug dosing changes in oncology are typically performed only to reduce toxicity," said Dean Ho, from National University of Singapore (NUS).

"CURATE.AI uniquely modifies drug dosing to increase efficacy. Our clinical study has shown that dosing can profoundly affect the efficacy and safety of treatment," Ho added.

Also read: Alcohol intake among teens leads to prostate cancer

Combination therapy is the foundation of modern cancer treatment. This approach uses multiple drugs to attack the processes that support cancer growth.

A primary objective behind designing combination therapies is to achieve drug synergy, where the drugs work together to substantially improve efficacy. Combination therapy has generally improved treatment outcomes.

The CURATE.AI platform uses the patient's own clinical data such as their drug doses and corresponding changes to tumour sizes or levels of cancer biomarkers in the blood to calibrate his or her unique response to treatment.

"Using CURATE.AI to dynamically modify drug doses and successfully treat a metastatic cancer patient represents a landmark breakthrough for the use of AI to truly personalise patient care.This advance is expected to dramatically improve response rates for all combination therapies that are being developed for oncology as well as virtually all other diseases. We can also expect CURATE.AI to markedly reduce the costs of drug development," Ho explained, in a paper published in the Journal Advanced Therapeutics.

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