A new Al tool could slash cancer drug research waiting times in half

Discovering new drugs to treat cancer has to be one of science's highest callings. It's certainly one of the most urgent - and potentially lucrative.

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More than 400,000 people in the UK receive a cancer diagnosis each year. However, while an ageing population means more cases than ever before, mortality rates are not rising at the same pace, thanks to the slow but steady flow of novel drugs approved each year. Targeted therapies, which act on cancer cells or the specific proteins that help them grow while sparing the healthy cells, are becoming increasingly popular.

Frustratingly, it can take between 10 and 12 years on average for a single drug to move through the process of the research and development phase before approval. But new Al technology developed by a team at The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) in London could change that. Called MorphoMIL, it uses deep learning to profile the shape of drug-treated cancer cells in 3D and check for changes.