AI is Supporting Research of Cancer’s Impact on Aging

The National Cancer Institute’s partnership with St. Jude is helping researchers to better understand how cancer accelerates the aging process of survivors who were diagnosed as children. The team is also developing therapies that can decrease risks of frailty and dying at an early age.

NCI’s Jennifer Guida and St. Jude’s Kirsten Ness say the Behavioral Research Program as well as the Human Performance Laboratory have been instrumental in helping determine which survivors are more likely to experience physical and cognitive decline. These programs have also assisted researchers with identifying interventions that can possibly prevent premature death and other complications caused by cancer and cancer treatments.

Guida and Ness discuss how technology like artificial intelligence is playing a critical role in improving care for childhood cancer especially in conducting screenings, tracking a person's risk for heart failure as well as creating a patient's survivorship plan.