Choosing whether to use chemotherapy after breast cancer surgery is one of the hardest decisions patients and doctors face.
Chemotherapy can save lives, but it can also cause serious side effects such as fatigue, hair loss, nerve damage, and long-term health problems.
The difficult part is that many patients may not actually benefit from it, yet they still go through the treatment because there has been no simple way to know for sure.
Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world. Every year, about 2.3 million people are diagnosed globally. Doctors try to predict whether the cancer will return and whether chemotherapy will help.
At present, this often involves genetic testing, which looks at the activity of certain genes in tumor cells. These tests can be useful, but they are expensive, take time, and are not available everywhere.
A new study from the Technion—Israel Institute of Technology offers a different solution. The researchers have developed an artificial intelligence system that can predict both the risk of cancer returning and whether chemotherapy is likely to help. The study was published in The Lancet Oncology and also presented at a major cancer conference.
Instead of studying genes, the system looks directly at images of tumor tissue that doctors already collect during diagnosis. These images are scanned into a computer, and the AI examines them in detail. It looks for patterns in the cells and the surrounding tissue that are too complex for the human eye to measure.
The system uses deep learning, which is a type of AI that learns from large amounts of data. It studies features such as how quickly cells divide, how they are arranged, and how the immune system interacts with the tumor. From this information, it produces a score that helps guide treatment decisions.
To test the system, the researchers used data from a large clinical trial involving more than 10,000 patients. This allowed them to compare patients who received chemotherapy with those who did not. The results showed that the AI could successfully predict who would benefit from chemotherapy, not just who had a higher risk of cancer coming back.
This is important because previous tools mainly focused on risk, not on actual treatment benefit. By combining both, this new system may help doctors avoid giving chemotherapy to patients who do not need it, while ensuring that those who do need it receive it.
The researchers also tested the system on patients from different countries and hospitals. It worked well across different populations and medical settings, suggesting that it could be widely used.
Another advantage is speed and cost. The AI can provide results in minutes and does not require extra lab work. This could be especially helpful in countries where advanced testing is not available.
However, while the results are promising, the system is not yet widely used in everyday care. More testing and real-world studies are needed before it becomes a standard tool.
Overall, this study shows that AI could play a major role in making cancer treatment more precise and more personal. It may help reduce unnecessary treatments and improve outcomes for patients.
The findings are exciting, but they also raise questions. Doctors will need to understand how to best use these tools, and patients will need clear explanations to feel confident in AI-guided decisions. Still, this research marks an important step toward smarter and more accessible cancer care.
If you care about breast cancer, please read studies about a major cause of deadly breast cancer, and this daily vitamin is critical to cancer prevention.
For more information about cancer, please see recent studies that new cancer treatment could reawaken the immune system, and results showing vitamin D can cut cancer death risk.
Source: Technion—Israel Institute of Technology.
