New AI tool can predict melanoma recurrence
Source: The Harvard Gazette, November 2022
Most deaths from melanoma — the most lethal form of skin cancer — occur in patients who were initially diagnosed with early stage melanoma and then later experienced a recurrence, which typically goes undetected until it has spread or metastasized.
A team led by investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital recently developed an artificial intelligence-based method to predict which patients are most likely to experience a recurrence and are therefore expected to benefit from aggressive treatment. The method was validated in a study published in npj Precision Oncology.
Most patients with early stage melanoma are treated with surgery to remove cancerous cells, but patients with more advanced cancer often receive immune checkpoint inhibitors, which effectively strengthen the immune response against tumor cells but also carry significant side effects.