Scientists Use AI To Create Drug Regime For Rare Form of Brain Cancer In Children

Scientists have successfully used artificial intelligence to create a new drug regime for children with a deadly form of brain cancer that has not seen survival rates improve for more than half a century. The Guardian reports: The breakthrough, revealed in the journal Cancer Discovery, is set to usher in an 'exciting' new era where AI can be harnessed to invent and develop new treatments for all types of cancer, experts say. Computer scientists and cancer specialists at the ICR and the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust used AI to work out that combining the drug everolimus with another called vandetanib could treat diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), a rare and fast-growing type of brain tumor in children. Currently, DIPG and other similar types of tumors are incredibly difficult to remove surgically from children because they are diffuse, which means they do not have well-defined borders suitable for operations. But after crunching data on existing drugs, the team found everolimus could enhance vandetanib's capacity to 'sneak' through the blood-brain barrier and treat the cancer.

The combination has proved effective in mice and has now been tested in children. Experts now hope to test it on a much larger group of children in major clinical trials. The research found that combining the two drugs extended survival in mice by 14% compared with those receiving a standard control treatment. Both the drugs in the research, which was funded by Brain Research UK, the DIPG Collaborative, Children with Cancer UK and the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity, among others, are already approved to treat other types of cancer. 'The AI system suggested using a combination of two existing drugs to treat some children with DIPG -- one to target the ACVR1 mutation, and the other to sneak the first past the blood brain barrier,' said Chris Jones, professor of paediatric brain tumor biology at the ICR. 'The treatment extended survival when we tested it in a mouse model, and we have already started testing it out in a small number of children. We still need a full-scale clinical trial to assess whether the treatment can benefit children, but we've moved to this stage much more quickly than would ever have been possible without the help of AI.'

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