AI may help tailor treatment for childhood brain tumors
Choosing the right treatment for a child with a malignant brain tumor requires a careful balance. Therapy must be strong enough to keep the cancer from coming back, but it can also cause lasting side effects that affect learning, development and quality of life. Now, an international team led by researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has developed an artificial intelligence model that may…
An international team of researchers, led by scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, has developed an artificial intelligence model called MANTIS (Methylation profiling and Artificial Neural networks for Time-dependent Individualized Survival predictions). This AI model uses DNA methylation profiling, a test already used to diagnose brain tumors, to generate personalized survival predictions for children with medulloblastoma and ependymoma.
The study, published in Nature Genetics, found that MANTIS outperformed current risk-prediction approaches for many patients and could potentially reduce treatment intensity in some children with medulloblastoma. By estimating how survival probability changes over time based on the unique biology of each child's tumor, MANTIS aims to move beyond broad risk categories and provide a more individualized understanding of each child's tumor.
This could help match treatment intensity to the biology of the disease and reduce long-term side effects for some patients.
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