Pancreatic cancer is one of the most dangerous cancers in the world . The number of cases of this type of cancer is predicted to increase in the future. The disease is often diagnosed when the patient is in an advanced stage. At that time, treatment methods will be less effective and most patients will not survive, according to the New York Post (USA).
New AI tool can detect pancreatic cancer up to 3 years early
Currently, there is no tool that can screen people at high risk for pancreatic cancer on a large scale. The people who are being screened are those with mutations in genes that predispose them to pancreatic cancer. This means that many people who are at high risk of developing the disease are not being screened.
The study was led by experts at Harvard Medical School (USA) and the University of Copenhagen (Denmark). In the article published in the journal Nature Medicine , the researchers used an AI tool to screen the medical records of about 9 million people in Denmark and the US. They instructed the AI to look for early signs of pancreatic cancer based on the characteristics of the medical records.
AI will combine the analysis of disease codes and the time of symptom onset. Thanks to that, this tool can identify people who are likely to develop pancreatic cancer in the future. AI can even predict accurately even when the disease codes, symptoms and time of onset are not directly related to the pancreas.
In this way, the AI has identified people at highest risk of pancreatic cancer. Doctors will then request a diagnosis to detect the disease early and treat it promptly. Common symptoms of pancreatic cancer include jaundice, pain in the middle back and upper abdomen, weight loss, itchy skin, and fatigue.
Statistics show that among patients who detect pancreatic cancer early, about 44% will be treated effectively and live past 5 years. However, only 12.5% of pancreatic cancer cases are detected early. For those who detect the disease at an advanced stage, the survival rate is only 2 to 9%.
With these AI tools, researchers hope that in the future, people will be screened for diseases they are at high risk of developing, which could reduce unnecessary medical tests and procedures, according to the New York Post.
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