Cancer specialists and computer scientists at ICR and the Royal Marsden NHS foundation trust used artificial intelligence to create a drug for the treatment of rare cancer among Children.
Artificial Intelligence help to combine the drug Everolimus with another drug called vandetanib. Indeed That could treat diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma which is fast growing and brain cancer in children.
Scientist hopes that use of artificial intelligence can bring change in the treatments of all type of cancers.
How helpful this new treatment would be?
It is difficult to remove these types of cancers surgically because they are diffuse. This means they do not have well-defined boundaries appropriate for operations.
Majority of the Children with DIPG have a mutation in a gene known as ACVR1. However, there is no treatment available to target this mutation.
The new study will help to enhance vandetanib capacity to pass through the blood-brain barrier to treat cancer using combining two drugs.
The drug is initially tested on mice and proved successful, moreover, scientists have also used it in four children.
The study results showed the drug extended survival of mice by 14%, in comparison with those receiving the standard control treatment.
Now experts are looking forward to work on testing the drug with a wider children group in clinical trials.
Chief executive of The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), London, Prof Kristian Helin said,
‘’ The use of Al promises to have a transformative effect on drug discovery,’’
Moreover, he added,
‘’ In this study, the use of Al has identified a drug combination which appears to have promise as a future treatment for some children with incurable brain cancer.
It’s exciting to think that it could become one of the first examples of treatment proposed by Al going on to benefit patients.’’
Brain Research UK, the DIPG collaborative, Children with Cancer UK, and the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity funded the research . And published in the journal cancer discovery.
Dr. Fernando Carceller, consultant in pediatric and adolescent neuro-oncology at the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, and leader of the pediatric and adolescent neuro-oncology and drug development team at the ICR said:
“This inspiring research highlights the possibilities of harnessing artificial intelligence to find better cures for childhood cancers.’’
Clinical trials will be followed the preliminary results, he said,
hopefully, this discovery will bring more development in the areas of cancer treatment.
