Artificial intelligence is increasingly present in diagnoses, such as the early diagnosis of lung cancer, and then new drugs, applications that help women who suffer from depression during pregnancy, new vaccines, and neuron transplants obtained from embryonic stem cells in the fight against Parkinson’s disease: it is some of the 11 clinical trials to watch in 2024, according to the journal Nature Medicine. “The selected studies have in common the authoritativeness of the structures and the large number of patients involved,” Giuseppe De Pietro, director of the National Research Council’s Institute for High-Performance Computing and Networks, told ANSA.
The use of AI is also starting to make its way into clinical trials: one of them, taking place in several hospitals in the Netherlands, will evaluate its usefulness in predicting the mortality risk of patients entering the emergency department, to immediately identify those that require more attention. “It’s an idea that was born a few years ago, but this new test is much more robust,” notes De Pietro. “It is about the automation of the initial assessment of the patient’s seriousness carried out when entering the emergency department thanks to the already available electronic medical documentation.”
Instead, another study is testing it, involving 150,000 participants in six hospitals in the United Kingdom an AI model to review chest X-rays of patients who may benefit from further testing on the same day to be able to perform an early diagnosis of lung cancer. “One of the first applications of artificial intelligence in the clinical field was precisely in imaging diagnostics”, adds the director of Icar-Cnr: “This is another very promising study because lung cancer has a high chance of being cured if it is detected early. It is important to emphasize that in both of these applications, AI systems are used as support: they do not replace doctors, but help them make more informed decisions.”
Three other clinical trials on the list also involve different forms of cancer. The first will focus on the usefulness of one screening every two years to prevent lung cancer deaths: the study will examine 26,000 people in six European countries, including Italy, which is participating with the National Oncology Institute in Milan. The second is an evaluation of the efficacy and safety of trastuzumab deruxtecan, a cure for breast cancer that has metastasized to the brain while the third, covering Australia, Europe, and the United States, will examine the effectiveness of the new melanoma therapy aggressive skin cancer.
Two trials among those to watch out for will deal with mental health. It is being evaluated in rural areas of Pakistan application was developed by the UK’s University of Liverpool to enable a woman with no healthcare experience to provide support to other women in the community suffering from depression during pregnancy. Another study from the UK will examine the effectiveness of a new intervention model for mental health-dedicated children up to 5 years in foster care.
There is also a place in the list of vaccines including virus testing HIV responsible for AIDS and one against malaria in programs for children in Africa, in Burkina Faso, Kenya, Tanzania, and Mali.
Finally, a study underway in Sweden and the United Kingdom in which neurons derived from human embryonic stem cells will be transplanted into the brains of suffering patients from Parkinson’s disease and one takes place in the UK and New Zealand on a gene therapy aimed at modifying the gene responsible for the disease it causes accumulation of LDL cholesterol so-called “bad” cholesterol.