A group of major medical institutions specializing in cancer care have formed a partnership to better take advantage of AI’s potential to advance the space. With $40 million of cash and resources from big tech backers, the Cancer AI Alliance (CAIA) could be a huge step forward in precision medicine. The members of the alliance are Fred Hutchinson, which will coordinate the new effort, Johns Hopkins, Dana Farber, and Sloan Kettering — to be precise, the cancer research arms of these organizations.
As Fred Hutch President and Director Tom Lynch said on stage at the Intelligent Applications Summit in Seattle, where the institute is based, “we believe this has the potential to be transformative. This represents an unprecedented ability..
. to agree that working together will enable progress.” He gave the example of a patient with a rare pediatric cancer going at one center, but the scientific knowledge to better treat it is siloed at another center, wrapped in proprietary methods and handling protocols.
Perhaps in ten years that knowledge will filter out through the scientific literature, but as he pointed out, the kid with a non-responsive leukemia doesn’t have that long. AI isn’t some miracle worker, of course, and the tug on the heartstrings isn’t meant to imply that this problem would quickly and easily be solved by some hypothetical treatment-finding model. But if a treatment or study that could help move things forward is not visible between these organizations.