Can machine learning be used to treat diseases?

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SUMMARY

Machine learning (ML) is increasingly utilized in the medical field to enhance disease treatment and understanding. Specifically, unsupervised learning techniques are being applied to analyze disease behaviors, such as disease X, and to optimize new medicines like medicine Y through reward maximization algorithms. Notable applications include predicting outcomes in prostate cancer radiotherapy and improving treatment planning for head and neck cancers. Additionally, ML algorithms are aiding radiologists in detecting diseases like COVID-19 and cancer through advanced imaging analysis.

PREREQUISITES
  • Understanding of machine learning concepts, particularly unsupervised learning.
  • Familiarity with medical imaging techniques, including CT and X-ray analysis.
  • Knowledge of outcome prediction models in healthcare.
  • Experience with reinforcement learning principles for optimizing treatment algorithms.
NEXT STEPS
  • Research unsupervised learning techniques in medical applications.
  • Explore reinforcement learning for optimizing treatment protocols in healthcare.
  • Investigate machine learning algorithms for medical imaging analysis, focusing on COVID-19 detection.
  • Study outcome prediction models in prostate cancer radiotherapy using large datasets.
USEFUL FOR

Healthcare professionals, data scientists in medicine, researchers in medical imaging, and anyone interested in the application of machine learning for disease treatment and prediction.

r731
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Say a person is infected with disease X. I suspect that it's possible for computers to learn the behavior of X via machine learning. This would lead to greater understanding of X. The unsupervised learning approach is pertinent to this.

For another approach, say a new medicine Y is being designed. It should also be possible that an algorithm trains Y via maximizing the cumulative reward for its treatment of the disease.
 
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There are lots of examples of machine learning applications in medicine. To name a few from my own field...
  • Outcome prediction. One of my students in currently using a large prostate cancer radiotherapy outcome data set to both identify any unknown factors that may influence the outcome and build a model that predicts outcome for a given case.
  • Another student I've worked with has used machine learning to identifying cases in cancers of the head and neck where replanning the radiotherapy treatment part way through a given course of treatment would be beneficial.
  • Aiding radiologists in the detection of diseases. There's been a lot of work recently on using various algorithms to detect COVID-19 in chest x-rays and other imaging modalities. Detection of cancer in a host of imaging modalities is another example.
  • Last week I attended a vendor presentation of new ML software that used to automatically delineate organs in CT images.
 
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