Big Breakthroughs

From gene therapy to nasal sprays, these were some of the most significant healthcare breakthroughs in the last year.

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Predicting pancreatic cancer using AI

According to a study published in Nature Medicine in May 2023, an AI tool was able to successfully identify pancreatic cancer in high-risk patients up to three years before diagnosis using only their medical records. In the study, an AI algorithm was trained on data sets containing nine million patient records from Denmark and the U.S., after which it was able to predict which patients were likely to develop pancreatic cancer. The study suggested that AI-based population screening could identify high-risk individuals early, improving outcomes for a disease often detected at advanced, less treatable stages. The disease remains the third-biggest cause of cancer-related deaths in the U.S., according to the National Cancer Institute.

First gene therapy approved for duchenne muscular dystrophy