A new AI technology can read the genome of brain tumors during surgery.
Scientists have developed an artificial intelligence (AI)-based tool called CHARM that can rapidly analyze the DNA of brain tumors to determine their molecular identity during surgery. This information can help neurosurgeons make important decisions about the extent of tumor removal and the use of tumor-killing drugs.
The current approach to molecular profiling of tumors can take days or weeks, which may result in either excessive or inadequate tissue removal. CHARM, on the other hand, extracts biomedical signals from frozen pathology slides, allowing for real-time molecular diagnosis during surgery.
The tool has shown promising results in distinguishing specific molecular mutations and classifying different types of gliomas, a type of brain tumor, with high accuracy. It can also identify visual characteristics associated with more aggressive tumor types. Although CHARM still needs further clinical validation and FDA clearance, it has the potential to advance real-time precision oncology and be adapted to identify other subtypes of brain cancer.
