Matching Cancers With the Best Chemical Treatments

Roland Piquepaille writes "When oncologists meet a new patient affected by a cancer, they have to take decisions about the best possible treatment. Now, U.S. researchers have devised an algorithm which matches tumor profiles to best treatments. They've used a panel of 60 diverse human cancer cell lines from the National Cancer Institute — called NCI-60 — to develop their "coexpression extrapolation (COXEN) system." As said one researcher, "we believe we have found an effective way to personalize cancer therapy." Preliminary results have been encouraging and clinical trials are now planned."

Comments

Re:Insurance

[piojo]

Lets just hope that doctors who use this algorithm still throughly examine every patient before beginning treatment, because, while probably useful, I doubt its as effective as a full examination by a professional. Actually, if I remember correctly, an algorithm is better than doctors at diagnosing heart attacks... something about doctors being too human, and being unable to ignore statistically unimportant factors such as age (that is, being younger makes you less likely to experience a heart attack in just the same way that being younger makes you less likely to experience the symptoms of a heart attack--a given set of symptoms is equally to indicate a heart attack, regardless of age). My source? Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell. I'm probably misremembering a some of the details, but the point is there.

You may be right about its effectiveness in some cases, but its correctness, once it's perfected, will most likely be statistically better than the judgement of doctors.