An AI model identifies how each country can improve its cancer survival outcomes
An international team has used a type of artificial intelligence (AI) to identify the most important factors influencing cancer survival in almost every country in the world. The study provides information on policy improvements or changes that could be implemented in each nation to have the greatest impact. In general, access to radiotherapy, universal health coverage, and economic strength emerged as common and important factors. Furthermore, information for each country, including Spain, can be accessed through an online tool. The results are published in Annals of Oncology.
Borràs - IA países
Josep M. Borràs
Scientific coordinator of the National Health System Cancer Strategy, director of the Catalan Oncology Plan and Professor of Preventive Medicine and Public Health at the University of Barcelona
The article is a good example of the application of AI techniques in oncology planning. It presents an assessment of the factors that can explain the mortality/incidence ratio (a widely used measure of population outcomes) and breaks it down to the national level.
The problem is that it is based on ecological variables, as the authors acknowledge, and on a cross-sectional analysis, so attributing causality to these data is incorrect, and they can only be considered indicative.
On the other hand, the problem is that the selected variables are well-known internationally and are produced by international organizations (IARC, WHO, and IAEA being the most relevant), but they are the available variables, not the ideal ones, and this is a significant issue.
The weight given to radiotherapy resources for Spain could be due to the absence of other variables related to infrastructure or personnel. On the other hand, this indicator and its weight in our country reinforces the policy of updating and expanding radiotherapy oncology equipment thanks to the donation from the Amancio Ortega Foundation and the use in this field of the European resilience program.
Conflicts of interest: “I have a certain degree of conflict of interest, given that I have participated in prioritizing cancer control activities in our country.”
Patel et al.
- Research article
- Peer reviewed
- Observational study
- People
