Cancer tracking breakthrough

SCIENTISTS are using artificial intelligence to predict how cancers will progress and evolve, paving the way for more effective treatment.

A team has developed a computer-based tool that can pick out patterns in DNA mutation in cancers and then uses that information to forecast future genetic changes.

If doctors can predict how a tumour will evolve, they could intervene earlier to stop it before it has had a chance to spread or develop resistance, increasing the patient’s chances of survival.

Known as Revolver (repeated evolution of cancer), the technique has been developed by the Institute of Cancer Research London (ICR) and the University of Edinburgh.

They analysed data from 768 tumour samples from 178 lung, breast, kidney and bowel cancer patients from previous studies. Dr Andrea Sottoriva, team leader at the Institute, told the Nature Methods journal: ‘We’ve developed a powerful artificial intelligence tool which can make predictions about the future steps in the evolution of tumours based on certain patterns of mutation that have so far remained hidden within complex data sets.

‘We hope to remove one of cancer’s trump cards – the fact that it evolves unpredictably.’