New Delhi, June 27 || An international team of scientists has developed an artificial intelligence (AI) tool that could revolutionise cancer treatment by mapping cellular diversity within tumours.
The innovation tackles tumour heterogeneity in oncology, where varied cell populations cause treatment resistance and recurrence, news agency reported.
The AAnet AI tool, developed by the Sydney-based Garvan Institute of Medical Research in collaboration with the Yale School of Medicine in the US, uses deep learning to study gene activity in single cancer cells.
It finds five different cell types within tumours, each with its own behaviour and risk of spreading. This helps doctors understand cancer better than older methods, which treated all tumour cells the same, said the multinational research team.
"Heterogeneity is a problem because currently, we treat tumors as if they are made up of the same cell. This means we give one therapy that kills most cells in the tumor by targeting a particular mechanism. But not all cancer cells may share that mechanism," said the study's co-senior author, Associate Professor Christine Chaffer from the Garvan Institute.