Machine learning tools to help predict cancer drugs, researcher says

Machine learning tools can play an important role in the study of cancer and its treatment methods as by using these tools you can predict the effectiveness of drugs against cancer, Philipp Mertins from Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association.

Dr. Mertins and colleagues study the biological mechanisms of disease development through protein studies. Proteins play a key role in the development of cancer, and most new drugs target specific proteins. Therefore, their study is so important for understanding the mechanisms of cancer development, and for creating new methods to combat it.

According to him, patients usually get a lot of different drugs, and sometimes it's hard to figure out which one actually helps the patient. 

If we isolate drug-tumor combinations in mouse models, it is easier to understand which drug is really effective, he noted adding that you can also find new markers that can predict whether this medicine will work for a particular patient or not.