Artificial Intelligence (AI) will play a pivotal role in reducing the mortality rate of lung cancer, according to the Bangkok Dusit Medical Services Public Company Limited (BDMS).
BDMS and AstraZeneca (Thailand) Co Ltd recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) under a collaboration towards excellence in lung cancer treatment with a pilot phase to be implemented at the Bangkok Cancer Hospital Wattanosoth.
Cancer is the number one cause of death in 48 countries around the world, including Thailand, according to Dr Thiravud Khuhaprema, director of the Bangkok Cancer Hospital Wattanosoth.
He said the country detects 190,000 cancer cases with 120,000 deaths per year. It means that every hour, 14 people die from cancer.
Lung cancer is the number one cause of cancer death in Thailand. Approximately 19,000 of 23,000 lung cancer patients die no matter whether they receive treatment.
Dr Thiravud said lung cancer has even been detected in non-smokers. Other threats such as PM2.5 particles may cause changes in the respiratory system cells in people with the EGFR or KRAS genes.
Currently, there are no lung cancer screening guidelines for people who have never smoked. Thus a new technology, such as AI, needs to be deployed, he said.
"AI will play a pivotal role in lung cancer diagnosis and treatment, which helps analyse images, providing a multi-cancer risk screening for early detection through blood tests that can identify circulating tumour DNA," Dr Thiravud said.
Roman Ramos, country president of AstraZeneca (Thailand), said Al will help doctors detect smaller lung nodules, which may indicate the development of early-stage lung cancer enabled by AI.
The screening takes three minutes. If an abnormality is detected, patients will be able to get a diagnosis and promptly begin treatment.
This could lead to better outcomes and a higher chance of survival, he said.