Investigators from Yale Cancer Center were recently awarded a research grant from the American Cancer Society (ACS) and Yosemite, an oncology focused venture capital firm. The inaugural Yosemite—ACS grants were awarded to scientists from institutions across the country and are poised to make an impact in immuno-oncology as well as the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in cancer prevention, detection, treatment, and healthcare delivery.
The grant to Yale Cancer Center will support work on “Artificial Intelligence to reduce breast cancer overtreatment among older women: Model Development and Patient Perspectives.” Eric Winer, MD, Alfred Gilman Professor of Pharmacology and Professor of Medicine (Medical Oncology), Director of Yale Cancer Center, and President and Physician-in-Chief of Smilow Cancer Hospital, will lead the research along with co-investigators Sanjay Aneja, MD, Ilana Richman, MD, MHS, Elizabeth Berger, MD, MS, FACS, and Rachel Greenup, MD, MPH. Lucila Ohno-Machado, MD, MBA, PhD, is a collaborator on the grant.
The team will focus on developing approaches for identifying older women with low-risk breast cancer who might be candidates for active surveillance rather than immediate treatment, thus reducing side effects and maintaining quality of life. The study will also assess women’s perceptions of this approach and will explore and establish the feasibility and acceptability of using AI to identify older women with low-risk breast cancer. The findings will be the basis for a larger study to definitively evaluate the effectiveness of an active surveillance strategy for women with low-risk breast cancer identified by an AI-based algorithm.
“Despite the fact that among older women breast cancer is highly variable, some women will be diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer while others will have slow growing tumors, the great majority of older women with breast cancer receive relatively intensive treatments,” said Dr. Winer. “Each of these therapies can significantly impact older adults who are vulnerable to side effects, and who may have decreased physical function and quality of life as a result.”
Yosemite and ACS developed the highly competitive Yosemite—ACS Award to advance groundbreaking research taking place at institutions across the country. The investigators selected for the grant awards range from early career scientists to internationally recognized interdisciplinary researchers, all focused on a core, common mission of advancing cancer research.