Researchers in Australia have developed a digital tool that can rapidly and accurately identify cancer patients who have developed a serious side effect from immunotherapy, according to a study reported by a wire service. Australia's Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre created a clinician-verified 'digital phenotype', a computer algorithm using electronic medical record data to detect immune-related colitis, an inflammatory bowel condition affecting up to 50 percent of patients receiving immune checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapy, as per a Peter Mac statement released on Wednesday.
How the Tool Works
The tool replaces labor-intensive manual case reviews with a rapid, reproducible method that identifies affected patients with high accuracy, said lead researcher Jasmine Teng, an infectious diseases physician at Peter Mac. 'This tool represents a significant step forward in how we can harness the power of data that already exists within our health system,' Teng said.
Potential Impact on Patient Care
'If we can identify the biomarkers that predict who will develop immune-related colitis, we can work with patients and their treating teams to tailor their immunotherapy regimen or improve early management of this side effect,' she added. More efficiently identifying which patients experience immune-related colitis at scale enables new research and clinical insights previously impossible, Teng explained.
