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00:00This Tuesday is World Cancer Day.
00:02The campaign was established 25 years ago
00:05at a summit in Paris.
00:06And since then, there's been slow but steady progress
00:09treating one of the world's deadly diseases,
00:11notably through immunotherapy.
00:14Now the rapid advance of artificial intelligence
00:16is opening up new possibilities.
00:18Peter O'Brien reports now one week ahead
00:21of this year's Paris AI Action Summit.
00:25This is the old Paris Stock Exchange building.
00:28And in the room behind me, more than 100 experts
00:31are trading ideas.
00:36They're taking part in a two-day hackathon
00:39to try and use artificial intelligence
00:41to find new ways of treating brain cancer.
00:46This is my first hackathon,
00:48and I'm really looking forward to it.
00:51This is my first hackathon,
00:53so really excited to deploy any bioinformatics expertise
00:57that I've hopefully built over the PhD.
00:59AI is, in principle, able to integrate all those sources
01:04and then find patterns that would usually
01:06not be accessible to humans.
01:08There's a multitude of possibilities,
01:10so the ultimate goal would be, of course, targeted therapy.
01:14They're working on vast data sets
01:16drawn from more than 100 patients
01:19with glioblastoma, a deadly disease
01:21which kills most of those diagnosed within two years.
01:25Its cells reach deep down into the brain,
01:28making it difficult to reach, even with immunotherapy,
01:31which has transformed treatments
01:33for other cancers in recent years.
01:35One potential promising avenue could be
01:38what's known as personalised treatment,
01:41and AI could be the key to this.
01:49Today, we're so far from that,
01:51because we don't understand anything about biology.
01:54Biology is too complicated for the human brain.
01:57It must be AI machines trying to do it,
01:59because it's just too complex.
02:19France24's Peter O'Brien.
02:21Well, we're going to keep talking on World Cancer Day now
02:24with Jejini Varghese.
02:26You're a leading consultant
02:27oncoplastic breast surgeon based in London.
02:30Thank you so much for taking the time to speak to us today
02:32on this World Cancer Day.
02:34Thank you for having me.
02:35So, we just heard there about that hackathon in Paris
02:38to try and find new AI technology
02:39to help with brain cancer.
02:41What do you think about that?
02:43Well, I think it's a great idea.
02:45to try and find new AI technology
02:46to help with brain cancer.
02:48There's also an AI trial that's been launched in the UK
02:51for breast cancer, which is your specialty.
02:53What more can you tell us about that?
02:55Yeah, that's right.
02:56So, it's really exciting.
02:57It's called the EDIDS trial,
02:59and it's actually looking at harnessing the power of AI
03:03to support the way radiology consultants work.
03:07So, women in the UK and around a lot of the countries
03:11where there are national screening programmes,
03:14women are invited to come in
03:15for their three-yearly or two-yearly mammograms.
03:19And what we're looking to do here
03:21is to use AI to identify changes on mammograms
03:25that will support the radiology consultant
03:28to make the accurate diagnosis.
03:31And the hope is that in the future,
03:33we will be able to...
03:34So, at the moment, we have two radiology consultants
03:37that have to look at every mammogram,
03:40and the possibility remains that AI
03:42will be able to support the radiology consultants,
03:45free up some of the manpower,
03:47improve the accuracy of the diagnosis,
03:50pick up changes that may have been missed,
03:52and we're really excited about this trial.
03:56Have there been other medical advances like this
03:58recently in the fight against breast cancer?
04:01Absolutely.
04:02So, the other area where AI has been used
04:04and will be used in the future a lot more
04:07will be histopathology.
04:08Again, we're looking at slides of breast cancer
04:11tissue, and AI will be able to pick up patterns.
04:15And that's another area where we think
04:17AI is going to be able to support
04:19consultant pathologists, for example.
04:22Another area is liquid biopsy,
04:24where this is an area that holds a lot of promise.
04:29So, this is where we look at the blood
04:31taken from a patient who has a new diagnosis
04:34of breast cancer or has finished breast cancer treatment.
04:38And then we're looking to see small amounts
04:41of circulating tumor DNA,
04:43which is very, very small amounts,
04:45but we are developing tests that are sensitive
04:48enough to pick these up.
04:50So, overall, I think AI holds a lot of promise,
04:53and the fact that the government is stepping up
04:56to fund these kind of large trials
04:59is really promising and really exciting as well.
05:02Well, tell us a bit more about the numbers
05:04of breast cancer in the world today.
05:05I mean, have there been changes
05:07in the figures around the world in recent years?
05:09Yeah.
05:10So, advances in screening and treatments
05:13have led to a decrease in the number of deaths
05:16due to the disease all around the world.
05:19However, the incidence of breast cancer
05:23sadly continues to rise,
05:25and this is seen globally.
05:28We see that the incidence is highest
05:30in the Western countries,
05:31mostly in North America, Europe, and Australia,
05:34where rapid rises are being seen
05:36in other parts of the world,
05:37which is quite concerning,
05:39which is why early detection becomes key,
05:42and prevention is a topic we have to keep talking about.
05:45This is a complex condition.
05:47It's not easy to talk about
05:49what really causes the disease.
05:51It is an interaction between genetics
05:53and environment and lifestyle factors.
05:55So, doing programs like you're doing
06:00with breast cancer awareness,
06:01advising women to go and seek screening
06:04for the disease,
06:05early detection is the key
06:07because if it can be picked up as early as possible,
06:11these chances of survival are great.
06:13So, there are lots of advances that ensure that.
06:16Indeed.
06:17But what about if and when breast cancer is,
06:20there's a diagnosis of breast cancer?
06:23I mean, is there access,
06:25enough access to being diagnosed
06:27and to getting treatment around the world today?
06:30Yeah, there are huge disparities, I understand.
06:33Like, in the Western world,
06:35we have moved on to offering personalized treatment.
06:38So, a lot of advancements have been made.
06:40Like you mentioned before,
06:41there's immunotherapy for hard-to-treat cancers,
06:43like triple negative cancers,
06:45and her two targeted treatments
06:47have completely revolutionized the way we treat women
06:50with traditionally hard-to-treat cancers.
06:53But access to these treatments
06:56continue to be difficult in several parts of the world.
06:59Mainly because of the finance and the cost involved.
07:02Working in the UK,
07:04we have the NHS that provides these kinds of treatments free.
07:09So, all women who are diagnosed with the condition
07:12have access to cutting-edge treatments.
07:15However, this is not the same for women
07:17who are in other parts of the world.
07:19We need to make sure that,
07:20regardless of where women are,
07:22they have access to the best possible treatment.
07:25Indeed.
07:26Even last week here in France,
07:27the French Parliament voted
07:28to make sure that breast cancer patients
07:30no longer have to pay any of their own money
07:32for things like breast implants or medical tattoos.
07:36France also voted to take on more cost of breast cancer care.
07:40How many governments around the world are doing that?
07:42And how much can a breast cancer patient
07:44be forced to pay out of pocket for their care?
07:47I think it is very expensive.
07:51So, when we're talking about these treatments,
07:53we're talking about thousands and thousands.
07:56It's really difficult to be able to pay out of your pocket.
07:59So, governments have to step up
08:01and support their citizens
08:04in accessing these life-saving treatments
08:06because the survival rates are critically,
08:10significantly affected by these treatments
08:12and everyone should have access.
08:14And it's difficult to step up
08:15to pay out of pocket for these treatments.
08:18Jijini, just one last word before you go about prevention.
08:21I mean, what should women be doing themselves
08:23to prevent breast cancer every day?
08:26The key things that we know is exercise,
08:28physical activity, increase physical activity
08:30to at least 150 minutes of activity
08:33of moderate level a week.
08:35It has been shown to decrease 13 types of breast cancer,
08:39one of which is breast cancer,
08:4013 types of cancers and one of them is breast cancer.
08:43We need to maintain a healthy BMI
08:46because we know that fat is a source of estrogen
08:48and that can increase your risk of breast cancer.
08:52Reduce alcohol consumption
08:54and also go for early screening
08:56and pick up any changes as early as possible.
08:59Jijini, thank you so much
09:00for sharing your expertise with us.
09:01We really do appreciate it on this World Cancer Day.
09:04Jijini Varghese, a consultant,
09:05oncoplastic breast surgeon based in London.
09:07Thank you very much for your time.
09:09Thank you for having me.
09:10And thanks to you for watching France 24.
09:12Don't go away.
09:13We're going to take a quick break.
09:14I'll be back in a few minutes with more.