Challenges Faced by Clinicians in the Personalized Treatment Planning: A Literature Review and the First Results of the Russian National Cancer Program

Abstract

Advances in cancer molecular profiling have enabled the development of more effective approaches to the diagnosis and personalized treatment of tumors. However, treatment planning has become more labor intensive, requiring hours or even days of clinician effort to optimize an individual patient case in a trial-and-error manner. Lessons learned from the world cancer programs provide insights into ways to develop approaches for the treatment strategy definition which can be introduced into clinical practice. This article highlights the variety of breakthroughs in patients’ cancer treatment and some challenges that this field faces now in Russia. In this report, we consider the key characteristics for planning an optimal clinical treatment regimen and which should be included in the algorithm of clinical decision support systems. We discuss the perspectives of implementing artificial intelligence-based systems in cancer treatment planning in Russia.

Supporting the decision to perform molecular profiling for cancer patients based on routinely collected data through the use of machine learning

“…The minority class, which was represented by patients with molecular profiling, was considerably smaller than the majority class, indicating that the number of NGS tests performed is still relatively low compared to the number of cancer patients. This may be attributed to the fact that conventional treatment methods, such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and surgery, are commonly used as first-line therapy in most types and stages of cancer, while personalized therapy is usually reserved for second-line or subsequent lines of treatment [ 34 ].…”

Prognostic Value of Serum Transferrin Analysis in Patients with Ovarian Cancer and Cancer-Related Functional Iron Deficiency: A Retrospective Case–Control Study

“…In 75% of cases, CrO is diagnosed at stages III-IV, so the prognosis is extremely unfavorable. Methods for screening the population for CrO have not been developed, so the search for potential markers and therapeutic targets is an urgent task [3]. Iron is an important component of proteins and enzymes that perform a wide range of functions, such as cellular respiration, oxygen transport and metabolism, energy metabolism, DNA synthesis and repair, signal transduction, and immune response.…”