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Scientists have successfully used artificial intelligence to create a new drug regimen for children with a deadly form of brain cancer that has not seen improved survival rates for more than half a century .
The breakthrough, revealed in the journal Cancer Discovery, is expected 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.
“The use of AI promises to have a transformative effect on drug discovery,” said Professor Kristian Helin, managing director of the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), London, where a team of scientists, doctors and data analysts made the discovery.
“In this study, the use of AI identified a drug combination that shows promise as a future treatment for some children with incurable brain cancer. It’s exciting to think that this could become one of the first examples of an AI treatment that benefits patients. “
Computer scientists and cancer specialists at ICR and the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust used AI to determine that combining the drug everolimus with another called vandetanib could treat diffuse intrinsic pontic glioma (DIPG), a type of rare and rapidly growing brain tumor in children.
Currently, DIPG and other similar types of tumors are incredibly difficult to remove surgically in children because they are diffuse, which means they do not have well-defined boundaries suitable for operations.
But after analyzing data on existing drugs, the team found that everolimus may improve the ability of vandetanib to “seep” through the blood-brain barrier and treat cancer.
The combination has been shown to be 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.
Research found that the combination of the two drugs prolonged the survival of mice by 14% compared to those receiving standard control treatment.
The two research drugs, which were 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.
“DIPG is a rare and aggressive childhood brain cancer, and survival rates have not changed over the past 50 years, so we desperately need to find new treatments for this disease,” said Chris Jones, professor of pediatric brain tumor biology at ICR.
“Our study demonstrates how AI can contribute to drug discovery for cancers like DIPG, by providing new combinations of treatments that may not have been obvious to people.
“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 cross the blood brain barrier first. The treatment extended survival when we tested it in a mouse model, and we have already started testing it in a small number of children.
“We still need a large-scale clinical trial to assess whether the treatment can benefit children, but we have moved to this stage much faster than it would ever have been possible without the help of the IA. “
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 ICR, said the breakthrough was “encouraging And highlighted the possibilities of “harnessing artificial intelligence” to find “cures” for cancer.
The initial idea for the research came from BenevolentAI, a company that built an AI drug discovery platform. ICR researchers worked with those at BenevolentAI to use its platform to identify drugs that could be used to treat DIPG.
Prof Peter Richardson, vice president of pharmacology at BenevolentAI, said the initial results were “promising.”
He added: “AI-enhanced approaches are already proving their value in expanding the capabilities of researchers to find new, innovative therapeutic approaches, whether by discovering new therapies or reusing existing ones, not only in the field of therapy. DIPG, but also in other diseases in the future.
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