Survivors of childhood cancer need lifelong monitoring for side effects from radiotherapy. However, longitudinal data from routine monitoring is often infrequently and irregularly sampled, and subject to inaccuracies. Due to this, measurements are often studied in isolation, or simple relationships (e.g., linear) are used to impute missing timepoints. In this study, we investigated the potential role of Gaussian Processes (GP) modelling to make population-based and individual predictions, using insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) measurements as a test case. With training data of 23 patients with a median (range) of 4 (1-16) timepoints we identified a trend within the range of literature reported values. In addition, with 8 test cases, individual predictions were made with an average root mean squared error of 31.9 (10.1 - 62.3) ng/ml and 27.4 (0.02 - 66.1) ng/ml for two approaches. GP modelling may overcome limitations of routine longitudinal data and facilitate analysis of late effects of radiotherapy.

The White House announced a $50 million investment in artificial intelligence research to predict cancer progression and minimize treatment side effects in children.

Cancer is the leading cause of death for children. There are over 400,000 new cases of pediatric cancer diagnosed every year. Scientists at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto are using AI to increase the speed and accuracy of diagnosing cancer. Dr. Adam Shlien and his colleagues have developed an AI based platform that can can classify every known type of childhood cancer and match a diagnosis for 85% of pediatric cancers. The new AI platform can help doctors and researchers identify specific cancer types faster and more accurately and can help researchers develop new therapeutics.

New software developed by Peter Mac and collaborators is helping patients diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) to determine what subtype they have. ALL is the most common childhood cancer in the world, and also affects adults. "Thirty to forty percent of all childhood cancers are ALL, it's a major pediatric cancer problem," says Associate Professor Paul Ekert from Peter Mac and the Children's Cancer Institute, who was involved in this work. More than 300 people are diagnosed with the disease in Australia each year, and more than half of those are young children under the age of 15. Determining what subtype of ALL a patient has provides valuable information about their prognosis, and how they should best be treated.