A new artificial intelligence algorithm can rank drugs used to treat primary liver cancer based on their effectiveness in reducing cancer cell growth, according to a new study by researchers at King’s College Hospital and Queen Mary University of London. .
This is the first time that this machine learning method has been used to identify potential new treatments for bile duct cancer, a type of primary liver cancer.
DRUML
Liver cancer affects 6,200 people in the UK each year. The disease can often go unnoticed, as patients experience no symptoms early on. Even when caught early, the five-year survival rate after diagnosis is less than 13% .
Bile duct cancer, also known as cholangiocarcinoma (CCA), is a type of primary liver cancer that arises from cells in the liver known as cholangiocytes. The new algorithm was developed after analyzing CCA cells and tumors donated by patients around the world, including donors to the King’s College Hospital Liver Biobank.
The algorithm, called Drug Classification Using Machine Learning (DRUML), was previously designed to identify effective treatments for patients diagnosed with cancers.
The method is based on the analysis of modified proteins that are commonly seen in malignant cells and are believed to be key to a cell’s ability to multiply. The researchers say that DRUML also has the potential to classify drugs for other cancers .