Microsoft develops AI project to help find cancer treatments

By Dina Bass

Bloomberg

There are hundreds of new cancer drugs in development and new research published minute to minute, helping doctors treat patients with personalized combinations that target the specific building blocks of their disease. The problem is there’s too much to read and too many drug combinations for doctors to choose the best option every time.

Enter a Microsoft Research machine-learning project, dubbed Hanover, that aims to ingest all the papers and help predict which drugs and which combinations are most effective, according to the company.

Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University’s Knight Cancer Institute are working with Hanover’s architect, Hoifung Poon, to use the system to find drug combinations effective in fighting acute myeloid leukemia, an often-fatal cancer where treatment hasn’t improved much in decades. They include Jeff Tyner, and the institute’s director, Brian Druker, best known for pioneering Gleevec, a blockbuster drug for a different type of leukemia now owned by Novartis, that’s helped double those patients’ five-year survival rate since the 1990s.

Cancer is caused by genetic mutations that make cells grow and multiply out of control. Better ability to find those specific mutations has enabled new types of drugs that target the disease more precisely, raising the odds of survival. There are more than 800 medicines and vaccines in clinical trials to treat cancer, according to a 2015 report by Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. At the same time, the rising speed and falling cost for sequencing genes has boosted research, the development of therapies and means more cancer patients can gain exact data on their case.

“It’s exciting, but it also provides us with the challenge of then what to do with all the data,” Knight Institute’s Tyner said. “That is where the idea of a biologist working with information scientists and computationalists is so important. The combination of all those resources is going to help make the ultimate breakthroughs for more effective, less-toxic therapies.”

In a recent interview, Poon showed a slide of a melanoma patient with tumors pocking nearly every inch of his chest. In a second photo, the lesions completely cleared up after a targeted therapy. But a third showed most of the lesions returned a few weeks later after a different mutation enabled the cancer to roar back to life. A combination of targeted drugs could work here, Poon said, but how to find it?

“There are already hundreds of these kinds of specifically targeted drugs, so even if you think let’s pair two drugs there are tens of thousands of options,” he said. “It’s very hard to wrestle with. You might need several drugs to lock down all of the tumor’s pathways.”

Hanover, a nod to a seminal 1956 AI workshop at that city’s Dartmouth College, is part of several projects announced Tuesday by Microsoft to develop computational approaches to better cancer care and study. Other projects involve a machine-learning and computer-vision system to help radiologists understand tumor progress and an effort that could one day allow scientists to program cells to fight disease.

Machine learning, where computers use data to glean insights without being explicitly programmed by humans, is increasingly aiding cancer research by parsing data in research papers, results from clinical trials, radiology reports and electronic medical records. International Business Machines Corp.’s Watson Oncology system is helping doctors interpret clinical data and develop individualized treatments. Google’s DeepMind Technologies Ltd. has a medical unit and is working with the U.K. government health service to study whether computers can be trained to spot degenerative eye problems early enough to prevent blindness. Startup Deep 6 Analytics in Pasadena, California, mines unstructured data like health records to find candidates for clinical trials of new drugs. Flatiron Health, backed by a Google VC unit, compiles research and patient information from cancer centers into a database and uses that to make clinical trials more efficient.

Poon’s Hanover wants to augment the work of so called tumor board reviews, where a number of doctors gather to discuss the best treatment option for patients.

“One of the bottleneck’s right now for the tumor board is to understand all this knowledge and how can you extrapolate,” he said. “This is what people have to deal with unless we can automate that process.”

Mark Craven, a professor of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has used the previous iteration of Poon’s work for research on genes potentially related to breast cancers that are resistant to the most common types of treatments, called triple-negative breast cancer.

While these kinds of machine-learning based approaches are important to new cancer care, challenges remain, according to Anil Goud, a medical director who works on things like clinical information at Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles. One is getting the information gleaned by machine-learning software into the hands of clinicians and into their regular workflow. And while some health insurers can be convinced to cover new and varied combinations of drugs if the research supports that, overall this is new territory for the insurance industry, Goud said. Researchers will also need to find enough patients who are appropriate candidates to make sure varied and new combined therapies work. He’s still hopeful though. “In oncology, it’s almost impossible for us to think this is doable without machine learning,” Goud said. “The amount of data to be able to sift through and understand what’s significant would have taken much, much, much longer if we hadn’t had this.”

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Business

A closing sign hangs above the entrance of the Big Lots at Evergreen and Madison on Monday, July 22, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Big Lots announces it will shutter Everett and Lynnwood stores

The Marysville store will remain open for now. The retailer reported declining sales in the first quarter of the year.

George Montemor poses for a photo in front of his office in Lynnwood, Washington on Tuesday, July 30, 2024.  (Annie Barker / The Herald)
Despite high mortgage rates, Snohomish County home market still competitive

Snohomish County homes priced from $550K to $850K are pulling in multiple offers and selling quickly.

Henry M. Jackson High School’s robotic team, Jack in the Bot, shake hands at the 2024 Indiana Robotics Invitational.(Henry M. Jackson High School)
Mill Creek robotics team — Jack in the Bot — wins big

Henry M. Jackson High School students took first place at the Indiana Robotic Invitational for the second year in a row.

The computer science and robotics and artificial intelligence department faculty includes (left to right) faculty department head Allison Obourn; Dean Carey Schroyer; Ishaani Priyadarshini; ROBAI department head Sirine Maalej and Charlene Lugli. PHOTO: Arutyun Sargsyan / Edmonds College.
Edmonds College to offer 2 new four-year degree programs

The college is accepting applications for bachelor programs in computer science as well as robotics and artificial intelligence.

FILE — Boeing 737 MAX8 airplanes on the assembly line at the Boeing plant in Renton, Wash., on March 27, 2019. Boeing said on Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2024, that it was shaking up the leadership in its commercial airplanes unit after a harrowing incident last month during which a piece fell off a 737 Max 9 jet in flight. (Ruth Fremson/The New York Times)
Federal judge rejects Boeing’s guilty plea related to 737 Max crashes

The plea agreement included a fine of up to $487 million and three years of probation.

Neetha Hsu practices a command with Marley, left, and Andie Holsten practices with Oshie, right, during a puppy training class at The Everett Zoom Room in Everett, Washington on Wednesday, July 3, 2024. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
Tricks of the trade: New Everett dog training gym is a people-pleaser

Everett Zoom Room offers training for puppies, dogs and their owners: “We don’t train dogs, we train the people who love them.”

Andy Bronson/ The Herald 

Everett mayor Ray Stephenson looks over the city on Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2015 in Everett, Wa. Stephanson sees  Utah’s “housing first” model – dealing with homelessness first before tackling related issues – is one Everett and Snohomish County should adopt.

Local:issuesStephanson

Shot on: 1/5/16
Economic Alliance taps former Everett mayor as CEO

Ray Stephanson will serve as the interim leader of the Snohomish County group.

Molbak's Garden + Home in Woodinville, Washington will close on Jan. 28. (Photo courtesy of Molbak's)
After tumultuous year, Molbak’s is being demolished in Woodinville

The beloved garden store closed in January. And a fundraising initiative to revitalize the space fell short.

Everett Mayor Cassie Franklin, Advanced Manufacturing Skills Center executive director Larry Cluphf, Boeing Director of manufacturing and safety Cameron Myers, Edmonds College President Amit Singh, U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen, and Snohomish County Executive Dave Somers participate in a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Tuesday, July 2 celebrating the opening of a new fuselage training lab at Paine Field. Credit: Arutyun Sargsyan / Edmonds College
‘Magic happens’: Paine Field aerospace center dedicates new hands-on lab

Last month, Edmonds College officials cut the ribbon on a new training lab — a section of a 12-ton Boeing 767 tanker.

Gov. Jay Inslee presents CEO Fredrik Hellstrom with the Swedish flag during a grand opening ceremony for Sweden-based Echandia on Tuesday, July 30, 2024, in Marysville, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Swedish battery maker opens first U.S. facility in Marysville

Echandia’s marine battery systems power everything from tug boats to passenger and car ferries.

Helion Energy CEO and co-founder David Kirtley talks to Governor Jay Inslee about Trenta, Helion’s 6th fusion prototype, during a tour of their facility on Tuesday, July 9, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
State grants Everett-based Helion a fusion energy license

The permit allows Helion to use radioactive materials to operate the company’s fusion generator.

People walk past the new J.sweets storefront in Alderwood Mall on Thursday, July 25, 2024, in Lynnwood, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
New Japanese-style sweets shop to open in Lynnwood

J. Sweets, offering traditional Japanese and western style treats opens, could open by early August at the Alderwood mall.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.