Dana-Farber/Boston Children'S Cancer & Blood Disorders Center

Telemedicine visits for cancer care may not only be more convenient and easier to schedule than in-person appointments, they're also better for the planet. On a national US basis, decentralizing clinical portions of cancer care would produce 33% less greenhouse gas emissions than traditional in-person care. Telemedicine visits for cancer care may not only be more convenient and easier to schedule than in-person appointments, they're also better for the planet, new research by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute scientists shows. Based on an analysis of data from a regional cancer center, the researchers calculate that, nationwide, cancer care that utilizes telehealth and local care would generate 33.1% less greenhouse gas emissions than the traditional model of in-person care, primarily because of reduced travel to medical appointments. The findings presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and published simultaneously in the journal JAMA Oncology, suggest that an approach to care adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic can have significant environmental benefits. "While health care in the United States provides health benefits to many people, it generates substantial amounts of greenhouse gas emissions that drive climate change and inadvertently harm health," says Andrew Hantel, MD, a faculty member in the Divisions of Leukemia and Population Sciences at Dana-Farber who led the study with Gregory Abel, MD, MPH, a senior physician at Dana-Farber, and Jonathan Slutzman, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital. "We wanted to explore the potential reductions in emissions that can be achieved with a decentralized approach to cancer care that includes telehealth. To do so, we used data generated during the 'natural experiment' of the pandemic, when care shifted from an in-person to a telemedicine-preferred model." The researchers calculated the amount of carbon dioxide emitted per visit-day at Dana-Farber during two time periods: March-December 2020, when the pandemic prompted the Institute to shift largely to telemedicine; and March 2015-February 2020, when a traditional in-person model was in place. (A visit-day is the combined visits a person has at a healthcare facility in a single day.) They began by listing all the components of a clinical visit, both in-person and telehealth. For in-person visits, that includes everything that happens from the time a patient leaves home for an appointment until the time they return -- such as driving to the hospital, parking the car, taking the elevator to the clinic, using hand sanitizer, using the bathroom, and driving back home. They also factored in the use of electricity for lights and computers, even the paper that covers the exam room table. Using a variety of databases, they then determined the carbon dioxide emissions associated with each of these. (For products like hand sanitizers, there is data on the number of emissions used in making and disposing of each of their constituent parts.) For telehealth visits, there were far fewer aspects to track -- mainly, computer and internet usage by the patient and clinician. They found that per visit-day emissions of carbon dioxide at Dana-Farber were 36.4 kilograms lower during the telemedicine period than the in-person period, an 81.3% decline. They then calculated what emissions levels during the pre-pandemic period would have been if telemedicine had been in place and extrapolated it to the whole U.S. population. They found that CO2 emissions would have been reduced by 75.3 million kilograms, a 33.1% drop. (The more modest decline on a national level than at Dana-Farber reflects differences between the national population and those treated at Dana-Farber, such as the higher proportion of patients with rare cancers, Hantel explains. Patients with more uncommon cancers often travel further to receive care, resulting in higher emissions levels.) At the national scale, the 75.3-million-kilogram decline in CO2 corresponds to a modest reduction in human health harms (15.0-47.7 disability adjusted life-years). "Telemedicine, and decentralized oncology care in general, involve a complex balance of risks and benefits that vary across the population," Hantel observes. "On the plus side, they can increase the reach of expert care while reducing travel, time, and cost for patients. But they also have the potential to add rather than replace visits, which may be difficult for older adults and those without good internet connections, and in some cases may reduce clinicians' ability to appropriately diagnose and treat. Our findings add another layer to this conversation, showing that emissions reduction is an additional benefit of this approach to care."

Kidney Cancer Research Aims to Enhance Metastatic Patient Management by Pinpointing Biomarker to Optimize Clinical Decision-Making BINYAMINA, Israel and CARY, N.C., June 2, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- OncoHost, a technology company transforming the approach to precision medicine for improved patient outcomes, today announced a research study with Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, a world leader in adult and pediatric cancer treatment and research, to identify biomarkers for renal cell carcinoma (RCC), a type of kidney cancer. Immune-checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy has transformed treatment outcomes for RCC. However, ICIs can also trigger immune-related adverse events and may not benefit all patients. "We are excited to collaborate with Dana-Farber Cancer Institute on this important research study," said Ofer Sharon, MD, CEO of OncoHost. "As we enter the era of precision medicine, validated biomarkers are increasingly used to guide treatment decisions and uncover resistance pathways in various types of tumors. However, RCC lacks reliable biomarkers to predict ICI response. Our goal is to overcome this challenge to improve clinical decision-making in the first line setting and, ultimately, patient outcomes." The collaboration will leverage Dana-Farber's repository of patient plasma samples and corresponding clinical data, providing essential materials for OncoHost to create a proteomic plasma profile. "Patients with renal cell carcinoma currently do not have any blood test that can help make personalized treatment recommendations," said Wenxin Xu, MD, Physician, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, and Principal Investigator of the research study. "This study explores whether measuring blood levels of thousands of cancer related proteins can be used to build personalized, data-driven predictions. If successful, the data we generate could help us learn more about the biology of renal cell carcinoma and its treatments." The primary objectives of the study include creating a proteomic plasma profile of metastatic RCC patients before treatment, thereby associating protein expression changes with treatment response metrics like Best Response, Overall Survival, and Progression-Free Survival, and evaluating differential response predictions to specific treatment combinations. The research project will also explore proteomic pathways associated with treatment response and immune-related adverse events (irAEs), offering potential insights into treatment options and biological patterns of resistance. Comparisons with pathways identified in other cancers, as part of the PROPHETIC trial (NCT04056247), will further enhance the understanding of RCC's unique biomolecular landscape. About OncoHost OncoHost is a technology company headquartered in Binyamina, Israel, and Cary, North Carolina, transforming the approach to precision medicine for improved patient outcomes. OncoHost's proprietary platform, PROphet®, is a plasma-based, proteomic pattern analysis tool whose initial offering in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) uses a single blood sample to guide first-line immunotherapy decision-making. The PROphetNSCLC™ test provides clear clinical utility by offering physicians crucial guidance on the optimal first-line immunotherapy treatment plan for each individual patient, with a significant effect on overall survival. Led by an experienced team of entrepreneurs and industry experts and supported by a large-scale prospective clinical trial with over 40 sites and 1,700 patients recruited worldwide, OncoHost is well-positioned to lead precision diagnostics and biomarker development to the next stage. For more information, visit , or follow OncoHost on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Media Contact: Lior Alperovich Marcom Manager [email protected] +972-54-282-4503 SOURCE OncoHost

Studies to Be Presented at the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology (USCAP) Annual Meeting Brigham and Women's Hospital and Champalimaud Foundation research shows high accuracy levels of Galen Breast in identifying microinvasive carcinoma of the breast. University of Pittsburgh Medical Center study demonstrates pathologists' high performance when using Galen Prostate to support primary diagnosis in a live clinical setting. Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center studies show high accuracy for Galen Breast and Galen Gastric in detecting and distinguishing between different types of cancer and in identifying multiple important pathologies. BOSTON, March 21, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Ibex Medical Analytics (Ibex), the leader in AI-powered cancer diagnostics, today announced excellent results across multiple clinical studies conducted with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), Brigham and Women's Hospital, Champalimaud Foundation and Ohio State University (OSU). These studies, highlighting the value of Ibex's AI-powered cancer diagnostics solutions in both diagnostic quality and efficiency, will be presented next week at the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology (USCAP) Annual Meeting. Cancer incidence is rising around the world while its diagnosis becomes more complex and nuanced in an era of precision medicine, in which accurate diagnosis is key for enabling personalized and tailored therapies. Increasing demand and diagnostic workloads are compounded by a global shortage of pathologists who still rely heavily on manual work requiring visual analysis of biopsies. Ibex's Galen™ platform helps overcome these challenges with Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered workflows and decision-support tools that pathologists use in their everyday practice. A study conducted at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Champalimaud Foundation evaluated Galen Breast's performance in identifying microinvasive carcinoma of the breast in a challenging patient cohort. Microinvasive carcinoma is defined as the focus of invasive breast cancer no larger than 1mm, in which accurate detection has important implications for patient management. The results indicate that Galen Breast's AI algorithm is highly accurate in detecting microinvasive lesions and has the potential to improve consistency in diagnosis and support more efficient workflows in pathology laboratories. "Microinvasive carcinoma is challenging and time-consuming to identify, and is often subject to overdiagnosis and underdiagnosis, adversely affecting treatment decisions. Therefore, Galen Breast's accuracy in detecting and classifying these minute tumors is a vital step forward in enhancing diagnostic confidence and providing oncologists with a comprehensive pathology diagnosis," said Stuart Schnitt, MD, Chief of Breast Oncologic Pathology at the Dana-Farber/Brigham Cancer Center, and an investigator in the study. In another study conducted at UPMC, researchers assessed Galen Prostate's performance in primary diagnosis of prostate biopsies. The study found the AI-powered solution was highly accurate in identifying and grading cancer in a live clinical setting, with NPV and PPV of 0.991. The study also demonstrated positive feedback from participating pathologists, showing high satisfaction, particularly with Galen Prostate's Gleason scoring, detection of perineural invasion and automated measurement of tissue and tumor length. In addition, researchers from OSU Wexner Medical Center will present studies validating Galen Breast's performance in detecting different types of breast cancer. This includes invasive and in situ carcinoma, as well as other clinically important pathologies, such as lobular neoplasia and microcalcifications across a diverse cohort of breast biopsies. They will also present a study validating the performance of Galen Gastric in the diagnosis of gastric cancer, neuroendocrine tumors, H.pylori and other gastric lesions, such as adenoma and low-grade dysplasia. "Galen offers an unparalleled breadth of detection capabilities going well beyond cancer and becoming an integral part of everyday clinical practice in laboratories, hospitals and health systems globally," said Dr. Chaim Linhart, Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder of Ibex Medical Analytics. "With these outstanding outcomes achieved in leading US healthcare institutions across various tissue types, amplified by very positive user feedback, our technology continues to set the standard for AI solutions in pathology, helping clinicians improve patient outcomes." Ibex will be showcasing these findings at the USCAP Annual Meeting taking place in Baltimore, Maryland, between March 23 to 28, at booth number 755. About Ibex Medical Analytics Ibex Medical Analytics (Ibex) is transforming cancer diagnostics with world-leading clinical grade AI-powered solutions for pathology. Empowering physicians and supporting pathologists, Ibex is on a mission to provide accurate, timely and personalized cancer diagnosis for every patient. Ibex's Galen™ is the first and most widely deployed AI-powered platform in pathology and demonstrated outstanding outcomes in multiple clinical studies2,3,4,5,6. Pathologists worldwide use Galen as part of their everyday routine practice to improve the accuracy of cancer diagnosis, implement comprehensive quality control measures, reduce turnaround times and boost productivity with more efficient workflows. For additional company information, please visit and follow us on LinkedIn and X. The Galen™ platform includes solutions which are for Research Use Only (RUO) in the United States and not cleared by the FDA. Multiple Galen solutions are CE marked (IVDD and IVDR) and registered with the UK MHRA. For more information, including indication for use and regulatory approval in other countries, contact Ibex Medical Analytics. Ibex Media Contact Nechama Rosengarten FINN Partners [email protected] [1] NPV and PPV are statistical terms which define the precision of a diagnostic test in detecting a relevant feature. [2] Sandbank et al., Validation and real-world clinical application of an artificial intelligence algorithm for breast cancer detection in biopsies, npj Breast Cancer, December 2022 [3] Pantanowitz et al., An artificial intelligence algorithm for prostate cancer diagnosis in whole slide images of core needle biopsies: a blinded clinical validation and deployment study, THE LANCET Digital Health Aug 2020 [4] Rodriguez-Justo et al., Multi-Site Multi Reader Study on Artificial Intelligence-Assisted Primary Diagnosis of Gastric Biopsies, Virchows Arch (2023) 483 (Suppl 1): S1 [5] Comperat et al., Clinical Level AI-Based Solution for Primary Diagnosis and Reporting of Prostate Biopsies in Routine Use: A Prospective Reader Study, European Congress of Pathology 2021 [6] Raoux et al., Novel AI-Based Solution for Supporting Primary Diagnosis of Prostate Cancer Increases the Accuracy and Efficiency of Reporting in Clinical Routine, USCAP 2021 SOURCE Ibex Medical Analytics