IBM is changing the face of cancer treatment

Have you ever heard of IBM Watson? You know the robot that beat Ken Jennings at Jeopardy!? Well he is not competing on game shows anymore, but is also being used at one of the best cancer institutes in the world, Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK). Watson helps advise doctors when treating patients with cancer. Because Watson is able to reason differently than humans, and condense large amounts of data into useful information, he may be able to work alongside physicians as they treat patients.

At Sloan Kettering, physicians treat more than 130,000 patients a year. Watson Oncology takes information from these patients and other past patients, to make individual treatment recommendations. The information that Watson uses to make these recommendations is collected from the whole team of MSK doctors, an example of its capabilities to condense information from the some of the world’s best oncologist.

Currently, Watson Oncology at MSK can only help make recommendations for four different types of cancer; breast, lung, colon and rectal, but it is only a period of time before more cancers may be added. The capabilities are astounding, and may catch human errors. For example, Watson Oncology takes into account the ejection fraction of the heart (a complicated term for how well your heart pumps) when making its recommendation, ensuring that none of the cancer treatments interact with the patients already present health needs.

Other hospitals have jumped on board to participate in the development of Watson as well, such as MD Anderson, one of our Cancer Brainstorming Club partner institutions. At MD Anderson, they are using Watson Oncology to make recommendations for patients with leukemia. With some of the most talented and specialized oncologist involved in the growth of Watson Oncology, many strides may be made in the field of cancer treatment.

Many thanks to Anita Govindjee, from IBM, who came to Cornell’s Ithaca campus to tell us more about this recent collaboration between IBM and Memorial Sloan Kettering.

Watch a demo case of Watson Oncology working below.