Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Show Promise in Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment

"The biomarker field is blessed with a plethora of imaging and molecular-based data, and at the same time, plagued with so much data that no one individual can comprehend it all," explained Guest Editor Karin Rodland, PhD, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland; and Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, OR, USA. "AI offers a solution to that problem, and it has the potential to uncover novel interactions that more accurately reflect the biology of cancer and other diseases." Promising applications of AI, DL, and ML presented in this issue include identifying early-stage cancers, inferring the site of the specific cancer, aiding in the assignment of appropriate therapeutic options for each patient, characterizing the tumor microenvironment, and predicting the response to immunotherapy. A comprehensive overview of the literature regarding the use of AI approaches to identify biomarkers for ovarian and pancreatic cancer illustrates underlying principles and looks at the gaps and challenges that face the field as a whole. Ovarian and pancreatic cancers are rare, but lethal because they lack early symptoms and detection.