AI Tranforming Prostate Cancer Care

AI Transforming Prostate Cancer Care

With the help of artificial intelligence (AI), BC Cancer researchers from Victoria and Surrey are poised to change the course of care for men facing prostate cancer.

The team, led by Drs. Abraham Alexander and Winkle Kwan, is preparing to launch a cutting-edge clinical trial called ADAPT-25 that will test the efficacy of two doses of Stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR) on curative prostate patients.

SABR is a highly precise and effective form of radiation that reduces side effects by limiting exposure to healthy tissues. And the AI algorithm will allow technicians to guide the beams with even more precision, adapting to daily changes in the patient’s body.

For a picture of the power of SABR, the same team recently published research that reduced the standard of care for curative prostate cancer patients from five to eight weeks of daily traditional radiation to just five weekly doses of SABR.

“This change has made a huge difference for our patients’ quality of life,” says Dr. Alexander. “On the Island, patients who live outside of Victoria don’t need to stay in the city. They can come down, receive treatment, go home and come back the following week.”

Zooming out on the impact of this research, prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men. Decreasing the number of radiation visits per patient is creating more capacity in the cancer system for others to access timely treatment.

With the trial launching later this year, the BC Cancer Foundation is fundraising $500,000 to bring it to life.