Depending on where you go to get treated and tested for cancer, there are different options made available based on the equipment offered at that particular location. It is common to pursue a lower cost option, however, it is common to switch treatment methods multiple times before they find the best option for that particular patient. Regina Barzilay, along with students from MIT, are working to have computers join the fight to find the best treatment possible for patients. Reading similar patient files is one major advantage. Although this is done now, a computer can do this at a much faster pace, and can collect more information than any one team of researchers could in the same amount of time. Similar symptom patterns, genetic makeups, and other factors can be grouped up into what was most helpful for who.
Additionally, computers can better analyze minuscule changes in scans of tumors - some that the average eye would have missed - and better predict how it will change in the future, setting a more accurate time table.
Hopefully this new technology will improve success rates of those with various cancers, and help get them the care they deserve.
Source:
http://news.mit.edu/2017/putting-data-in-the-hands-of-doctors-regina-barzilay-0216
Isn't this what that computer that plays Jeopardy is supposed to do?
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