Researchers have demonstrated the ability to recreate clinical trials using 'digital twins' of cancer patients, accurately predicting treatment outcomes. The technology, named FarrSight®-Twin, employs algorithms initially designed for astrophysical black hole detection. This approach could revolutionize cancer research by enabling virtual clinical trials before real-world testing and personalizing treatment selection.
Virtual Clinical Trials
Dr. Uzma Asghar, Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Concr, presented the findings at the 36th EORTC-NCI-AACR Symposium on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics. According to Dr. Asghar, "We can use digital twins to represent individual patients, build clinical trial cohorts and compare treatments to see if they are likely to be successful before testing them out with real patients."
The digital twins are constructed using biological data from thousands of cancer patients treated with various methods. This data is integrated to recreate a patient's cancer profile, including molecular tumor data, enabling prediction of treatment response.
Accuracy and Efficacy
In recreated clinical trials, the digital twins accurately predicted the outcomes of actual trials. Further analysis revealed that patients receiving treatments identified as optimal by FarrSight®-Twin exhibited a 75% response rate, compared to 53.5% in those receiving alternative treatments. The trials encompassed patients with breast, pancreatic, or ovarian cancer, and compared drug therapies including anthracyclines, taxanes, platinum-based drugs, capecitabine, and hormone treatments.
Implications for Drug Development
Dr. Asghar emphasized the potential of this technology to expedite drug development. "This technology means that researchers can simulate patient trials at a much earlier stage in drug development and they can re-run the simulation multiple times to test out different scenarios and maximise the likelihood of success."
The technology is also being developed to predict individual patient responses to treatment, aiding clinicians in selecting the most effective chemotherapy regimens. Ongoing research focuses on predicting treatment response in triple-negative breast cancer patients through a collaborative trial involving Concr, The Institute of Cancer Research, Durham University, and the Royal Marsden Hospital.
Expert Commentary
Professor Timothy A Yap from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, commented on the potential impact of digital tools in cancer treatment development. "If we can exploit digital tools to make this process quicker and easier, that should help us find better treatments for patients more efficiently in the future."
