Are we ready for an AI oncologist? This is the question Pallavi Tiwari, PhD posed during her TEDxOshkosh talk on November 16, 2024. Dr. Tiwari emphasized that AI is not magic or an evil, mysterious entity; it is simply a technology. A technology that has the potential to revolutionize the future of cancer treatment. Dr. Tiwari joked that it may sound like science fiction, but her team conducts research that could lead to an AI oncologist serving as an ally to human doctors.
Today, a cancer diagnosis leads the majority of patients to a similar treatment plan that includes surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. While each of these components is considered crucial, they might not be effective for every patient.
Dr. Tiwari explained, “Cancer is chaotic, it’s messy. It’s not just hard to predict, it’s hard to see the whole of the tumor and predict how it’s going to evolve over time, and so there is always a risk of overtreatment or undertreatment.”
She illustrated how an AI oncologist can make the unpredictable, predictable. “Imagine, instead of these exploratory surgeries and invasive biopsies, we trained an AI model using thousands of already collected MRI scans to learn subtle, unique characteristics about the tumor and use that information to predict how a tumor will respond to the treatment.”
In her talk, Dr. Tiwari features a compelling story about the fictional Mr. Kumar, a man diagnosed with the most aggressive form of brain cancer, glioblastoma. Watch her full TEDxOshkosh talk to learn how an AI oncologist shapes Mr. Kumar’s future, and how it could shape the future of cancer treatment.