Technologyvs

Cancer

There is a lot of cancer ‘moonshotting’ going on but what are the main ways that technology can help the fight against cancer?

This presentation is focused on how technological hardware, software, data and algorithms can help win the war against cancer. It also touches lightly on some of the exciting advances in therapies that directly target cancer cells. These are often made more powerful and specific with the related advances in technology

Mobile Health

The following example is powerful as it proves the efficacy of ‘digital therapy’ via a randomized clinical trial

The online follow up extended the median survival time from 12 months to 19 months, in advanced lung cancer patients.

Quality of life also improved

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Recruiting cancer patients can be a challenge, for trial centers but also patients who may miss out on a chance to trial a life saving drug due to complex recruitment processes

The next example is in cardiology but the same principle applies in oncology

Stanford’s, Apple research kit application MyHeart Counts, recruited 11,000 patients in just 24 hours

Prior to research kit this would have taken at least 1 year with a cost of over $60 million*

*based on $5500 per patient for phase 1 recruitment

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Wearables & Sensors

3D Printing

3D Printing is proving a powerful tool to create replacement body parts including those lost due to cancer, as the next example shows

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But printing cancer?

Brain tumor cells are being 3D printed to enable the testing of new treatments

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Wearables & Sensors

3D PrintingVirtual Reality

Image via Medical Realities

Wearables & Sensors

3D PrintingThe first live virtual reality (VR) operation was screened this April in London. Dr Shafi Ahmed (pictured), Cancer Surgeon broadcast the operation in 3D around the globe. This has the potential to revolutionize training particularly in developing countries

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3D Visualization and Augmented Reality are being used in the operating room to widen the teams field of view. This example was featured as number 8 in the Cleveland Clinic Top 10 innovations 2017

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Wearables

MSK are using wearables in a trial to learn about the quality of life of Multiple Myeloma patients. These patients are subject to bone pain and fractures. The interesting hypothesis is that activity and sleep patterns will correlate with self-reported pain levels.

Memorial Sloan Kettering tests wearables in cancer trial

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Wearable technology can also be used to detect cancer for example the ‘smart bra’ to detect breast cancer. They are also being used in prevention, for example the MC10 / Loreal UV patch that tells you when enough sun is enough!

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Wearables & Sensors

3D Printing Big Data

Microsoft scientists have demonstrated by analysing large volumes of search data that they are able to identify those suffering from pancreatic cancer before they have been diagnosed with the condition

Microsoft finds cancer clues in search queries

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Flatiron are using big data to fight cancer, this includes a recent partnership with the FDA to use real world data to assess the efficacy of immunotherapies and other anti-cancer drugs

Flatiron health turn the power of big data on cancer

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You can donate your mobile phone data while you are sleeping (if you live in Australia and own an Android phone) via an app called Dreamlab. This extra processing power has slashed the initial project timelines by 9 months

Donate your mobile phone data?

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Wearables & Sensors

3D Printing Machine Learning

Machine learning and artificial intelligence tend to get linked with IBM Watson. The next example illustrates the partnership between Memorial Sloane Kettering Cancer Center and IBM Watson. Large volumes of data from different patient profiles and treatments are analysed by Watson. Watson can recommend personalized treatments with ever increasing accuracy as it learns from more data

WATCH VIDEO

Wired Magazine – Sept 20th 2016

IBM are not the only player in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) space when it comes to cancer. Microsoft have a lofty goal to ‘solve ‘ cancer in the next 10 years using AI.

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Wearables & Sensors

3D PrintingBigData

Robotics

Photo Credit: Roger Schultz

The DaVinci surgical robot is able to augment the dexterity and accuracy of a surgeon. The robot can cut away certain types of tumors with a high degree of precision. The future is likely to involve even more targeted and perhaps autonomous nano robots removing cancer tissue.

Image via davincisurgery.com

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Wearables & Sensors

3D PrintingBigData

Gaming

Games can be used, particularly with young cancer patients to improve adherence and boost self-efficacy

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Genes in Space was the world’s first mobile game dedicated to analyzing cancer data. Gamers contributed to the analysis simply by playing the game. The entire genomes of 1980 patients were checked 50 times for accuracy

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Nanomedicine

Google Nano Particles

Google are working on a pill containing nano particles that circulate the bloodstream and detect cancer. The idea is the particles report back to a wristband to indicate if cancer is detected

The vision is that these nano particles could eventually become active fighters of the disease rather than just passive messenger particles

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Image via Wired Magazine

Health Technology

Saliva Testing and Liquid Biopsies

Liquid biposies are a fast and non-invasive way to test for the presence of tumors and monitor the progress of treatment. Fluids can include blood, spinal fluid and urine. This innovation was Number 4 in the recent Cleveland Clinic Top 10 innovations for 2017

An approach to detect cancer using saliva is currently being developed.

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CRISPR and Cancer

The powerful gene editing tool CRISPR is targeting cancer in the first ever human trial. The team will hope to edit genes in a patients immune cells so the recognize and attack cancer at the first signs of growth

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Thank you

@garymonk+1-917-689-6053

linkedin.com/in/garywmonk