NUS Medicine uses AI platform to effectively treat patient with rare cancer

SINGAPORE: Researchers from the Institute for Digital Medicine (WisDM) at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS Medicine), have utilized an innovative artificial intelligence (AI) platform to treat a patient with Waldenström macroglobulinemia, a rare blood disorder affecting roughly three in a million people annually.

The AI platform, CURATE.AI, is designed to optimize treatment strategies for rare diseases, which affect fewer than 1 in 2,000 people individually but impact over 7,000 different types globally.

The Asia-Pacific region, home to about 258 million people with rare diseases, faces unique challenges in healthcare access, clinical trial recruitment, and treatment development due to the diversity and scarcity of patient data.

Traditional AI systems typically require vast amounts of data to be effective, but CURATE.AI offers a novel approach by leveraging small data sets to personalize treatments.

The platform dynamically adjusts dosages based on a patient’s responses, allowing for more precise and tailored care. Co-led by Professor Dean Ho, Director of WisDM at NUS Medicine, the clinical trial marks a pioneering shift in treating rare diseases.

Since the trial began in October 2021, the patient, who had been suffering from a rare blood disorder, experienced significant improvements in red blood cell levels and was able to avoid the need for blood transfusions.

Additionally, the patient experienced fewer hospital admissions and reported no serious side effects from the treatment while maintaining durable disease control.

The research team, working closely with clinicians from the National University Cancer Institute, Singapore (NCIS), utilized CURATE.AI to guide drug dosage decisions based on real-time patient responses.

This personalized approach resulted in lower and well-tolerated drug doses, saving the patient approximately USD 8,000 (around SGD 10,500) in medication costs over the first two years of treatment.

The ongoing clinical trial has opened the door for recruiting more patients suitable for this AI-guided treatment.

The initial results of the trial have been published in the journal ‘NPJ Digital Medicine,’ under the prestigious Nature Portfolio, highlighting the potential of AI in revolutionizing care for patients with rare diseases.