King's College London and global pharmaceutical company, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), have formed a new five-year partnership to use AI to provide insight into why and how some patients respond to certain cancer treatments.

WHY IT MATTERS

The collaboration will use AI systems to build tools that will support clinical decision-making to help improve patient outcomes.

This move has resulted in the Translational Oncology Research Hub, a research collaboration between the Artificial Intelligence and Experimental Medicine Units at GSK and the Comprehensive Cancer Centre at King’s College London.

The project will help create a personalised care strategy for a range of cancer patients, including those at high-risk of becoming resistant to treatment.

The approach will monitor for biomarkers, both imaging and blood-based, that can predict resistance during treatment or recurrence in the post-treatment phase. Equipped with this information, oncologists can make better-informed decisions about treatment that may lead to better patient outcomes.

THE LARGER CONTEXT

BCS, The Chartered institute for IT has called for better quality research before AI can be trusted to diagnose breast cancer. There was a ‘significant risk of over diagnosis’ should AI be adopted now in screening breast cancer, BCS stated.  

ON THE RECORD

Professor Tony Ng, head of the Comprehensive Cancer Centre, said: "This is one of the most significant partnerships we have developed during my time at King’s. We are very excited to work with our colleagues at GSK, known for combining advanced technologies and forging agile partnerships to improve patient outcomes. Together, we will move toward our shared goal of understanding the individualised needs of high- and low- risk cancer patients, and how we can use this information before and after treatment."

Professor Richard Trembath, senior vice president (Health & Life Sciences) of King’s and executive director of King’s Health Partners, said: "The opportunity to form this exciting collaboration, that brings expertise from industry and the academic community together, offers real potential to accelerate new findings of impact for improvement in cancer care."