Women worldwide could see better treatment with new AI technology, which enables better detection of damaged cells and more precisely predicts the risk of getting breast cancer, shows new research from the University of Copenhagen.
Breast cancer is one of the most common types of cancer. In 2022, the disease caused 670,000 deaths worldwide. Now, a new study from the University of Copenhagen shows that AI can help women with improved treatment by scanning for irregular-looking cells to give better risk assessment.
The study, published in The Lancet Digital Health, found that the AI technology was far better at predicting the risk of cancer than current clinical benchmarks for breast cancer risk assessment.
The researchers used deep learning AI technology developed at the University of Copenhagen to analyze mammary tissue biopsies from donors to look for signs of damaged cells, an indicator of cancer risk.
“The algorithm is a great leap forward in our ability to identify these cells. Millions of biopsies are taken every year, and this technology can help us better identify risks and give women better treatment,” says Associate Professor Morten Scheibye-Knudsen from the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine and senior author of the study.
Predicts cases of five times the risk of breast cancer
A core aspect of assessing cancer risk is looking for dying cells, caused by so-called cellular senescence. Senescent cells are still metabolically active but have stopped dividing. Previous research has shown that this senescent state can help suppress cancer development. However, senescent cells can also cause inflammation that can lead to tumor development.
By using deep learning AI to search for senescent cells in tissue biopsies, the researchers were able to predict the risk of breast cancer better than the Gail model, the current gold standard for assessing breast cancer risk.
“We also found that if we combine two of our own models or one of our models with the Gail score, we get results that are far better at predicting the risk of getting cancer. One model combination gave us an odds ratio of 4.70 and that is huge. It is significant if we can look at cells from an otherwise healthy biopsy sample and predict that the donor has almost five times the risk of developing cancer several years later,” says Indra Heckenbach, first author of the study.
Algorithm trained on ‘zombie cells’ can give better treatment
The researchers trained the AI technology on cells developed in cell culture that were intentionally damaged to make them senescent. The researchers then used the AI on the donor biopsies to detect senescent cells.
“We sometimes refer to them as zombie cells because they have lost some of their function, but they are not quite dead. They are associated with cancer development, so we developed and trained the algorithm to predict cell senescence. Specifically, our algorithm looks at how the cell nuclei are shaped, because the nuclei become more irregular when the cells are senescent,” explains Heckenbach.
It will still be several years until the technology is available for use at the clinic, but then it can be applied worldwide, as it only requires standard tissue sample images to do the analysis. Then, women around the globe can potentially use this new insight to get better treatment.
Scheibye-Knudsen adds, “We will be able use this information to stratify patients by risk and improve treatment and screening protocols. Doctors can keep a closer eye on high-risk individuals, they can undergo more frequent mammograms and biopsies, and we can potentially catch cancer earlier. At the same time, we can reduce the burden for low-risk individuals, e.g. by taking biopsies less frequently.”
More information: Indra Heckenbach et al, Deep learning assessment of senescence-associated nuclear morphologies in mammary tissue from healthy female donors to predict future risk of breast cancer: a retrospective cohort study, The Lancet Digital Health (2024). www.thelancet.com/journals/lan … (24)00150-X/fulltext
Image Credit:
News
Your Voice May Reveal How Fast Your Brain Is Aging
Researchers have developed a machine-learning “speech clock” that estimates age from subtle patterns in how people speak and what they say. It is possible that people’s voices may contain certain signals of aging that [...]
Optogenetics Pioneers Win 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
The 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to Peter Hegemann, Georg Nagel, and Karl Deisseroth for the development of optogenetics, a revolutionary technology that uses light to control individual neurons [...]
Molecular Manufacturing: The Future of Nanomedicine – From NanoappsMedical Inc.
This book explores the revolutionary potential of atomically precise manufacturing technologies to transform global healthcare, as well as practically every other sector across society. This forward-thinking volume examines how envisaged Factory@Home systems might enable the cost-effective [...]
What is ‘American Covid’ and how bad is it?
Cases of so-called ‘American Covid’ are on the rise in the UK. The strain is officially called XFG, or ‘Stratus’, and is the most common variant in North America, hence the name. It might soon [...]
Researcher at Russian plague laboratory dies of ‘unknown’ infection
Russian authorities have imposed "anti-epidemic measures" after a laboratory worker at an institute in Siberia dedicated to studying the plague and other infectious diseases died of a mysterious illness. The researcher, a 28-year-old female [...]
GHCE Concept
From the preface of the book Global Health Care Equivalency in the Age of Nanotechnology, Nanomedicine and Artificial Intelligence, Edited by Frank Boehm: Since the publication of my first book (Nanomedical Device and Systems [...]
A Surprising Brain Signal Could Explain Why Eating Less Protein Extends Lifespan
A new paper suggests that limiting protein intake triggers a coordinated response throughout the body that may help explain how protein restriction affects healthy aging. Animals respond to protein restriction, or reduced protein in [...]
Back and shoulder surgery is often worse than useless
Millions of operations should be scrapped SIX IN TEN Britons have surgery at some point. So do lots of Americans, at a cost of perhaps $500bn a year, a third of all spending on [...]
Cocaine plays with mind, hijacks brain circuit, drives increasingly rigid and repetitive behavior
Researchers have found that cocaine hijacks brain circuit, which to drive increasingly rigid and repetitive behavior. The brain circuit that normally participates in selecting natural mouth and face movements, but which becomes disproportionately engaged [...]
Injectable nanodevices could provide effective treatment for drug-resistant glioblastoma
The brain cancer glioblastoma is one of the most aggressive and treatment-resistant cancers known to medicine, carrying a median survival of just 12-15 months, even with the best available care. Now, researchers at the [...]
New Treatment Cuts “Bad” Cholesterol in Half for a Full Year
A single infusion of an experimental CRISPR-Cas9 therapy was reported to safely lower LDL cholesterol by 52.5% and triglycerides by 47.8%, as measured 12 months after treatment. What if one infusion could keep cholesterol [...]
Too Much RNA Can Drain a Cell’s Energy, Scientists Discover
A virus may cripple a cell’s power supply simply by producing too much of a molecule the cell needs to survive. New research from the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences [...]
West African scientists warn of weakening health systems and urge stronger outbreak detection
LOME, Togo (AP) — West African laboratory scientists called on governments Friday to strengthen capacity to detect disease outbreaks to avoid another major outbreak, saying health systems across the region are becoming weaker. Participants [...]
A Little-Known Protein Could Point to a New Way To Treat Alzheimer’s
A study suggests that increasing SORLA protein levels could help treat Alzheimer’s disease and other disorders involving tau protein. Increasing SORLA, a protein with a protective role in the brain, helped mice withstand damage [...]
Cancer’s Hidden Antioxidant Shield Helps It Escape the Immune System
Blocking an antioxidant protein that tumors use to suppress immune attacks improved cancer immunotherapy responses in mice. Cancer cells can release antioxidants that interfere with the immune cells trying to kill them. Researchers have [...]
Scientists Find a Berry Compound That Helps Muscle Cells Burn Fat
Pterostilbene, a compound found naturally in some foods, affects how skeletal muscles process fats by stabilizing a protein called PPARδ and increasing its signaling activity. Pterostilbene, a natural compound found in blueberries, grapes, and [...]
