Doctors have developed an artificial intelligence tool that can predict which men with prostate cancer will benefit from a drug that decreases the risk of dying.
Abirateurone has been described as a “Gamechanger” treatment for the disease, which is the most common form of cancer in men in more than 100 countries. He has already helped hundreds of thousands of people with advanced prostate cancer to live longer.
But some countries, including England, have decree To offer the “spectacular” medication more broadly to men whose disease has not spread.
Now, a team from the United States, the United Kingdom and Switzerland has built an AI test which shows which men would most likely benefit from the abiraterone. The “exciting” breakthrough will allow health care systems to deploy the drug to more men and save other unnecessary treatments.
The AI test is unveiled in Chicago at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the largest global cancer conference.
Nick James, professor of research on prostate and bladder cancer at the Institute of Cancer Research in London and clinical oncologist consultant at the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, co-directed the team that built it.
“Abirateurone has already considerably improved the prospects of hundreds of thousands of men with advanced prostate cancer,” said James. “We know that for many men with cancer who have not yet spread, it can also have spectacular results.
“But it comes with side effects and requires additional monitoring for potential problems with high blood pressure or hepatic anomalies. This can also slightly increase the risk of diabetes and heart attacks, so knowing who is most likely to benefit is very precious.
“This research shows that we can choose the people who will best respond to Abiraterone, and to those who will do good treatment alone – hormone therapy and radiotherapy.”
The test uses AI to study tumor images and the choice of characteristics invisible to human eye. The team, funded by Prostate Cancer UK, the Medical Research Council and Artera, tested the test on biopsy images of more than 1,000 men with high -risk prostate cancer that had not spread.
The AI test has identified the 25% of men in the group most likely to benefit from Abirateon – for these men, the drugs reticle the risk of death.
In the trial, patients received a score – positive or negative biomarker – which was compared to their results. For people with positive biomarker tumors, one in four of the men, the Abiraterone reduced their risk of death after five years by 17% to 9%.
For people with negative biomaricing tumors, Abiraterone has reduced the risk of death from 7% to 4% – a difference that was not statistically or clinically significant, the team said. These men would benefit from standard therapy alone and would be spared from unnecessary treatment.
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The co-leader of the study, Professor Gert Attard, of the UCL Cancer Institute, said: “This study shows, in a very large cohort of patients, that new algorithms can be used to extract information from the skull of pathology available in routine to adapt these treatments to specific patients and minimize treatment while maximizing the chance of treatment.”
James said that, because fewer men than what was thought before would need the drug, health systems should consider giving it to men whose cancer had not spread.
It is approved for the use of NHS in England for advanced prostate cancer, but not for a newly diagnosed high risk disease that has not spread. However, it is available for men with this indication in Scotland and Wales for two years.
“Abirateurone costs only £ 77 per package, against the thousands of books that new drugs have cost,” said James. “I really hope that this new research – showing precisely who needs drugs to live longer – will lead to the NHS England to examine their decision not to finance the abirateon for high -risk prostate cancer that has not spread.”
Dr. Matthew Hobbs, research director at Prostate Cancer UK, described the AI test as “exciting”. He added: “We therefore echo the urgent call of researchers so that the abirateon is made available to men whose life can save – men who, thanks to this research, we can now identify more precisely than ever.”
