Lung cancer is a dangerous and contagious disease that spreads throughout the body quickly and is not easy to detect in its early stages. However, thanks to the technology of artificial intelligence-enabled machine learning tools, detecting lung cancer is now possible almost 10 years before its onset.
Dubbed as ‘CanPredict’, the AI program helps high-risk patients receive appropriate treatment before the disease becomes deadly. Developed by scientists at the University of Oxford, in association with some professors from the University of Nottingham, the ML tool considers patients’ physical measurements, smoking and alcohol intake status, family history, BMI, and socioeconomic status and calculates the likelihood of being hit by the disease and its severity.
Does this eliminate the need for expensive Computed/rized Tomography (CT) scans? Well, no, say experts. CanPredict helps detect the disease early and facilitates early treatment. However, for those already experiencing symptoms or yet to be detected, the options are limited.
Therefore, if you are experiencing symptoms such as fever, dry cough, waking up in a drenched state with sweat, pain while swallowing, face swelling, chest or shoulder pain, persistent breathlessness, coughing up blood occasionally, and experiencing finger clubbing, wheezing, and a change in voice, it’s time to get checked.
CanPredict is currently in the beta phase and will soon be released for official testing, with certain diagnostic centers assigned to test the ML tool on patients. After successful testing, it can be released as a commercial version.
