Analysis for leukemia

AI determines acute myeloid leukemia with 99% accuracy by blood analysis

A simple blood test will speed up and simplify the diagnosis of patients with blood cancer. This is especially important because there are no specific symptoms in the development of acute myeloid leukemia, and a bone marrow puncture is necessary for a doctor to determine the problem. It is expected that the cost of the test will be in the range of only 50 €.

The new diagnostic method is based on the analysis of gene activity in blood cells using artificial intelligence. To develop a prototype test for the diagnosis of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), scientists from Germany analyzed more than 12 thousand blood images of adults and children from 105 different studies. Their work is published in the journal iScience (Warnat-Herresthal et al., Scalable prediction of acute myeloid leukemia using high-dimensional machine learning and blood transcriptomics).

The test is based on the analysis of the transcriptome of cells, which contains important information about their condition. The transcriptome is a kind of "fingerprint" of the activity of genes in each cell, the authors explain. The fact is that AML is associated with the proliferation of abnormal bone marrow cells, which, accumulating there, are gradually released into the bloodstream. By analyzing these patterns of cell activity in the blood, scientists can now identify pathology in the body without resorting to puncture.

It was possible to determine specific patterns of gene activity thanks to the analysis of a large number of blood samples from healthy people and patients with AML.

The accuracy of the algorithm was tested in different samples of volunteers. It was 99%.

The classical diagnosis of AML includes many stages and bone marrow puncture is necessary for the final diagnosis. A new blood test may be an alternative to this invasive procedure, but the authors are still cautious about calling the method only auxiliary.

"We have proved that our concept of a blood test to detect AML works. Now we will continue working on the creation of the test," commented the head of the study, Joachim Schultz.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru