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Artificial Intelligence is increasingly present in diagnoses, such as the early diagnosis of lung cancer. And then new drugs, apps to help women who suffer from depression during pregnancy, new vaccines and neuron transplants obtained from embryonic stem cells to fight the Parkinson: these are some of the 11 clinical trials to keep an eye on in 2024, according to the journal Nature Medicine.
The use of AI in clinical trials
«The studies chosen have in common the authoritativeness of the structures and the large number of patients involved» Giuseppe De Pietro, director of the Institute of High Performance Computing and Networks of the National Research Council, told Ansa. The use of AI is also starting to make its way into clinical trials: one of these, underway in several hospitals in the Netherlands, will evaluate its usefulness in predicting the risk of mortality for patients who access the emergency room, in order to immediately identify those that need more attention. «It’s an idea that was born several years ago, but this new trial is much more robust», observes De Pietro. «It’s about automating the initial assessment of the patient’s severity made at the entrance to the emergency room thanks to the electronic medical records already available».
Early diagnosis for lung cancer
Another study, involving 150,000 participants in six hospitals in the United Kingdom, is testing an AI model to examine the chest x-rays of patients who could benefit from further tests on the same day, in order to make an early diagnosis for cancer to the lung. «One of the first applications of Artificial Intelligence in the clinical field was precisely on diagnostic imaging», adds the director of the Icar-Cnr: «It is another very promising trial, because lung cancer has a high chance of recovery if detected in time. It is important to underline that in both of these applications AI systems are used as a support: they do not replace doctors, but help them make more informed decisions.”
New drugs for breast cancer and melanoma are being studied
Three other clinical trials on the list also concern different forms of cancer. The first will focus on the usefulness of screening every two years to prevent deaths caused by lung cancer: the study will examine 26 thousand people in six European countries, including Italy which participates with the National Cancer Institute of Milan. The second is evaluating the effectiveness and safety of trastuzumab deruxtecan, a drug for breast cancer with metastases to the brain, while the third, involving Australia, Europe and the United States, will study the effectiveness of a new therapy against melanoma , an aggressive skin cancer.
Two trials on mental health
Two trials among those to keep an eye on will deal with mental health. An app developed by Britain’s University of Liverpool that allows a woman with no experience in healthcare to provide help to other women in the community suffering from depression during pregnancy is being evaluated in rural Pakistan. Another study from the United Kingdom will investigate the effectiveness of a new model of mental health intervention dedicated to children aged up to 5 years old who are in foster care.