AI may decide best treatment after prostate cancer surgery so patients can escape hormone therapy

Artificial intelligence could soon allow prostate cancer patients to escape months of uncomfortable hormone therapy treatment.

At present, men who undergo radiotherapy to fight the cancer are given drugs that suppress the male sex hormone testosterone, as at normal levels it can fuel the cancer and trigger its return. But hormone therapy has a number of side effects, including sexual problems, hot flushes and fatigue.

Patients will take the drugs, given as a daily tablet, for between four months and three years, depending on how aggressive the cancer is.

Experts say the technique is effective for patients whose cancer is either very low- or very high-risk, but often leads to patients with less chance of relapse receiving the wrong treatment.

Now research has found that an artificial intelligence program can accurately predict which patients need short courses of hormone therapy and those who need longer treatment.

Research has found that an artificial intelligence program can accurately predict which patients need short courses of hormone therapy and those who need longer treatment

The findings, presented earlier this month at a meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, showed the program identified 34 per cent of men, out of a 1,000-person trial, who could take hormone therapy for just four months without the cancer returning.

It also concluded that 40 per cent of men who were considered to have only an intermediate risk of their cancer returning should, in fact, take the drug for longer because they were more likely to relapse than doctors expected.

The program, developed at the Duke Cancer Institute in the US, analyses scans of tumours to look for tell-tale ‘bumps’ that mean higher risk.

UK clinicians revealed that the tool is due to be rolled out on the NHS as part of a clinical trial. ‘We’re in the process of setting up a study using this software in Manchester,’ says Joe O’Sullivan, professor of radiation oncology at Queen’s University Belfast.

‘Fascinating technology like this could potentially completely change how we treat prostate cancer in this country.’