A team of researchers at University of Florida Health has developed a “digital tool that uses artificial intelligence to accelerate the diagnosis of acute leukemias.”
Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a “blood cancer originating in bone marrow and is often fatal. It’s one of the most common leukemias in adults and can progress quickly.”
The research team developed the “Acute Leukemia Methylome Atlas, or ALMA, by mapping specific tags in DNA referred to as methylation patterns across 3,300 leukemia samples.” The tool is now able to map patients to 27 leukemia subtypes. The atlas is an “open-access reference web tool that lets any new patient’s DNA methylation results be placed among thousands of previously diagnosed cases, allowing for rapid diagnosis of the leukemia subtype. Using an algorithm, the atlas plots each patient as a point. Points that sit close together share similar methylation patterns and often the same underlying leukemia subtype or risk category. The atlas allows any patient sample to be compared to thousands of other cases, instantly showing how their cancer maps to a specific subtype.”
The research team developed two AI-powered tools to help predict a patient’s disease progression. One tool “estimates the likelihood of surviving five years based on genetic markers, while the other uses a smaller set of markers that could make quick lab tests possible to guide treatment decisions.”
