New York City - 22 Mar 2012: Memorial Sloan-Kettering
Cancer Center (MSKCC) and IBM (NYSE: IBM) have agreed to
collaborate on the development of a powerful tool built
upon IBM Watson in order to provide medical
professionals with improved access to current and
comprehensive cancer data and practices. The resulting
decision support tool will help doctors everywhere create
individualized cancer diagnostic and treatment
recommendations for their patients based on current
evidence.
The initiative will combine the computational power of IBM
Watson and its natural language processing ability with
MSKCC's clinical knowledge, existing molecular and genomic
data and vast repository of cancer case histories, in order
to create an outcome and evidence-based decision support
system. The goal is to give oncologists located anywhere
the ability to obtain detailed diagnostic and treatment
options based on updated research that will help them
decide how best to care for an individual patient.
The IBM Watson system gained fame by beating human
contestants on the television quiz show Jeopardy!
It can interpret queries in natural language and uses
statistical analysis, advanced analytics and a powerful
array of processors to search millions of pages in seconds
and deliver evidence-based statistically-ranked responses.
MSKCC's world-renowned oncologists will assist in
developing IBM Watson to use a patient's medical
information and synthesize a vast array of continuously
updated and vetted treatment guidelines, published research
and insights gleaned from the deep experience of MSKCC
clinicians to provide an individualized recommendation to
physicians. The tool will also provide users with a
detailed record of the data and evidence used to reach the
recommendations.
The need for such an advanced technology arises from the
steadily increasing complexity of oncology treatment.
Cancers are the second most common cause of death in the
U.S., second only to heart disease, and the American Cancer
Society projects that 1.6 million new cancer cases will be
diagnosed in the U.S. this year* with outcomes varying
widely across the country. Cancer is not one disease but
some hundreds of sub-types, each with a different genetic
fingerprint. Significant discoveries in molecular biology
and genetics in the past two decades have delivered new
insights into cancer biology and strategies for targeting
specific molecular alterations in tumors, but these
advances have also ratcheted up the complexity of
diagnosing and treating each case. Oncologists and
physicians who do not specialize in specific sub-types of
cancer face a significant challenge in keeping up with the
magnitude of rapidly changing information.
"The combination of transformational technologies
found in Watson with our cancer analytics and
decision-making process has the potential to revolutionize
the accessibility of information for the treatment of
cancer in communities across the country and around the
world," said MSKCC President and CEO Craig B. Thompson.
"Consistent with our mission, the vision is to help better
identify and personalize cancer therapies for each
individual patient, no matter where that patient may be
receiving care. We also expect tremendous new research
opportunities to emerge from this collaboration."
"Memorial Sloan-Kettering's evidence-based clinical
approach, scientific acumen, and vast database make it the
ideal partner in this ambitious project," said Dr. Martin
Kohn, chief medical scientist, IBM. "Cancer care is
profoundly complex with continuous clinical and scientific
advancements to consider. This field of clinical
information, given its importance on both a human and
economic level, is exactly the type of grand challenge IBM
Watson can help address."
"This comprehensive, evidence-based approach will
profoundly enhance cancer care by accelerating the
dissemination of practice-changing research at an
unprecedented pace," said Dr. Mark G. Kris, Chief, Thoracic
Oncology Service at MSKCC and one of the clinicians leading
the development effort. He noted that 85 percent of
patients with cancer are not treated at specialized medical
centers and it can take years for the latest developments
in oncology to reach all practice settings.
Development work is already underway for the first
applications, which include lung, breast and prostate
cancers. The objective is to begin piloting the solutions
to a select group of oncologists in late 2012, with wider
distribution planned for late 2013. This collaboration
complements an earlier announcement by IBM and WellPoint
that the parties will focus on putting Watson to work on
oncology solutions.
About Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center is the world's
oldest and largest private institution devoted to
prevention, patient care, research, and education in
cancer. Our scientists and clinicians generate
innovative approaches to better understand, diagnose, and
treat cancer. Memorial Sloan-Kettering specialists are
leaders in biomedical research and in translating the
latest research to advance the standard of cancer care
worldwide. For more information, go to www.mskcc.org
*American Cancer Society, Cancer Facts and Figures 2012.
http://www.cancer.org/acs/groups/content/@epidemiologysurveilance/documents/document/acspc-031941.
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