The article discusses the Mayo Clinic’s recent initiatives to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) in cancer care, specifically for colon and breast cancer. Here are the key points:
Collaboration with Aiforia: The Mayo Clinic has teamed up with Aiforia, a Finnish AI software developer, to create an AI model that analyzes pathology slides and data from colorectal cancer patients. This collaboration, dating back to 2020, has led to the development of a model capable of identifying over a dozen specific tissue characteristics. These characteristics help estimate the likelihood of cancer recurrence. The AI model aims to optimize the use of chemotherapy by identifying patients who are most likely to benefit from it, thereby reducing costs and minimizing harmful side effects.
Commercialization of AI Technology: The Mayo Clinic has agreed to exclusively license this technology for global commercialization. Aiforia’s CEO, Jukka Tapaninen, indicated that this colon cancer recurrence technology is the first clinically relevant AI model developed and commercialized by Aiforia in collaboration with a customer. The company is also working on developing several other AI models with the Mayo Clinic and other partners.
Partnership with SimBioSys: In addition to the collaboration with Aiforia, the Mayo Clinic is working with SimBioSys on breast cancer. The goal is to co-develop new software tools to improve treatment for early-stage breast cancer. SimBioSys is analyzing data from the BEAUTY trial, a long-term clinical study led by the Mayo Clinic that began a decade ago. This study investigates genomic factors affecting breast cancer treatment.
Focus of SimBioSys’ Analysis: The analysis by SimBioSys aims to identify patient factors that could guide cancer treatment plans. This includes improving drug selection, surgical planning, and better calculating individual patient risk levels. The AI tools developed will be validated through virtual simulations with assistance from Mayo Clinic experts.
Potential Impact on Precision Medicine: Tushar Pandey, co-founder and CEO of SimBioSys, highlighted the potential of their technology to complement existing precision medicine techniques using readily available and previously acquired datasets, such as imaging.
In summary, the Mayo Clinic’s collaborations with Aiforia and SimBioSys represent significant steps in integrating AI into cancer care, potentially transforming the approach to treatment and precision medicine in colon and breast cancer.