Predictive Data to Help Cancer Patients Know Progress of Treatment

Researchers at Stanford
University School of Medicine have developed an algorithm that used predictive
analysis to assess the treatment progress of a patient.
Maximilian Diehn and Ash Alizadeh
said that just as bookies and pundits sift through mountains of data to predict
outcome of an election or a game,the new algorithm developed by the team
integrates many different types of predictive data-including a tumour's reponse
to treatment and the amount of cancer DNA circuating in a patient's blood
during therapy. This can help patients and doctors take meaningful decisions
such as attending a child's wedding next summer or whether priority should be
on preparing a will.
The treatment process termed
CIRI-continious individualised risk index, might also help doctors to identify
people who might benefit from early, more aggressive treatments as well as
those who are likely to be cured by standard methods.
The researchers began their study
by looking at people previously diagnosed with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma
(DLBCL), which is the most common blood cancer in the United States. Although
nearly two-thirds of adults with DLBCL are cured with standard treatment
protocols, the remaining third will likely die from the disease.
When a DLBCL patient is
diagnosed, clinicians like Alizadeh, Diehn and Kurtz assess the initial
symptoms, the cell type from which the cancer originated and the size and
location of the tumor after the first imaging scan to generate an initial
prognosis. More recently, clinicians have also been able to assess the amount
of tumor DNA circulating in a patient’s blood after the first one or two rounds
of therapy to determine how the tumor is responding and estimate a patient’s
overall risk of succumbing to their disease.
Source: http://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2019/07/sports-playbook-helps-doctors-predict-cancer-patient-outcomes.html
RECOMMENDED NEWS