IBM Watson gave ‘unsafe and incorrect’ cancer treatment options

Despite receiving praise for its ability to determine cancer treatments, IBM Watson – the company’s AI doctor – also could have put lives in danger.
Artificial intelligence (AI) can only be as good as the people who trained it. In the case of IBM Watson, some medical experts believe a major oversight could have potentially threatened the lives of patients.
According to Stat (via Engadget), a group of clinicians using IBM Watson for Oncology found “multiple examples of unsafe and incorrect treatment recommendations” being made by the AI.
In one instance during testing, a 65-year-old patient with severe bleeding was diagnosed with a drug that may have led to a “severe or fatal haemorrhage”.
A report compiled by these oncologists said that the fault in the system was likely down to IBM engineers and the Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) Cancer Center, which helped develop the AI.
More specifically, those who designed the AI’s insight fed it hypothetical patient data and treatment recommendations used by MSK, rather than any actual patient records. This resulted in treatment recommendations that didn’t align with reality, potentially putting real patients at risk.

Strong words

In one reported instance, a doctor at Jupiter Medical Center in Florida using IBM Watson for Oncology reportedly went as far as to call the system “a piece of shit”.
However, the hospital is still using the system for treatment recommendations as a second opinion for oncologists.
These findings appear to contradict a report issued by the American Society of Clinical Oncology, which found that in India, IBM Watson treatment options lined up with physicians’ recommendations 96pc of the time for lung cancer.
In response to this latest claim, IBM said that it has been working with hospitals and others using IBM Watson to improve its accuracy in the years ahead.
“We have learned and improved Watson Health based on continuous feedback from clients, new scientific evidence, and new cancers and treatment alternatives,” the company said.
“This includes 11 software releases for even better functionality during the past year, including national guidelines for cancers ranging from colon to liver cancer.”
Source:https://www.siliconrepublic.com/machines/ibm-watson-cancer-treatment

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

EMA validates Incyte’s MAA for retifanlimab to treat metastatic squamous cell anal carcinoma

Incyte, global biopharmaceutical company, announced the validation of the Company’s Marketing Authorization Application (MAA) for retifanlimab, an intravenous PD-1 inhibitor, as a potential treatment for adult patients with locally advanced or metastatic squamous cell anal carcinoma (SCAC) who have progressed on, or who are intolerant of, platinum-based chemotherapy. The European Medicines Agency’s (EMA) validation of the MAA confirms that the submission is sufficiently complete to begin the formal review process. “While the incidence of SCAC is increasing in Europe, treatment options for advanced disease are limited in their effectiveness, and there are no approved options once patients have progressed on standard therapy,” said Lance Leopold, M.D., Group vice president, Immuno-Oncology Clinical Development, Incyte. “The EMA validation of the MAA for retifanlimab – which follows the recent US Food & Drug Administration acceptance of our Biologics License Application for Priority R...
Read more

Tumour-targeting drug paves way for bone cancer treatment

 The treatment of osteosarcoma, the most common tumour of bone, is challenging, but a new study is offering hope to the patients with this disease. The study led by The University of  Texas MD Anderson Cancer Centre  found that a drug, known as bone metastasis-targeting peptidomimetic (BMTP-11), has potential as a new therapeutic strategy for this devastating illness. Results from the preclinical study looked at BMTP-11 alone and in combination with the chemotherapy agent gemcitabine. Although osteosarcoma is a relatively rare cancer, it is a leading disease-related cause of death in children and young adults ages 10 to 20. However, over the last 25 years, the five-year survival rate has remained unchanged, and the treatment options for these patients are few. In addition, the side effects of available treatment options often are significant and cumulative, and may cause other health problems and damage to major organs. "What's novel about this treatment is that...
Read more

Merck’s Keytruda plus platinum- and fluoropyrimidine-based chemotherapy receives US FDA nod to treat certain patients with locally advanced/metastatic esophageal or GEJ carcinoma

Merck, known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Keytruda, Merck’s anti-PD-1 therapy, for the treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic esophageal or gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) (tumors with epicenter 1 to 5 centimeters above the GEJ) carcinoma that is not amenable to surgical resection or definitive chemoradiation in combination with platinum- and fluoropyrimidine-based chemotherapy. The approval is based on results from the phase 3 KEYNOTE-590 trial, which demonstrated significant improvements in overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS) and objective response rate (ORR) for Keytruda plus fluorouracil (FU) and cisplatin versus FU and cisplatin alone, regardless of histology or PD-L1 expression status. For OS and PFS, Keytruda plus FU and cisplatin reduced the risk of death by 27% (HR=0.73 [95% CI, 0.62-0.86]; p<0.0001) and reduced the risk of disease progression or death...
Read more