State of cancer fight in 2018. Can Blockchain and AI technologies be the answer?
Where are we in cancer management?
As we enter a fully digital age, humankind has not reached the peak of technology. Major inventions today, such as the CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology, which allows us to reprogram life as we know it, compare them with the inventions 100 years ago, where the development of the toggle light switch was the highlight of the scientific year. Human technology officially left the solar system with the Voyager space probe and scientists are finding water and looking for life on Mars.
Medicine is always evolving and advancing. The Human Genome Project was declared complete in May 2006 with the sequencing of the last chromosome. We have a complete map of the genomic information of the human cells but still, cancer, an aberration of the human cells is this generation’s disease.
Nevertheless, how does cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment evolve and compares with the scientific advances in other fields? Moreover, does it evolve in a patient-centered way?

Cancer prevention or prophylaxis mainly consists of an assembly of measures and screening tests performed, that aims at disease prevention, as opposed to disease treatment. There is a scientific consensus that it is better to prevent than to treat, and the advances in cancer treatment have been phenomenal, cancer patients are living longer, and some of them are cured. From immunotherapy that uses our own body arsenal to fight against cancer to therapeutic viruses, nanotechnology, particles, and innovative “vaccines”, all of them have the potential to be the next great breakthrough in cancer treatment.
Data is very important to modern medicine. Hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, all of them use different electronic record systems, but the predicament lies in the fact that it offers an incomplete picture of the patients’ health history or medical records. Blockchain technology can emerge as one of the solutions to this problem. Blockchain technology can also be implemented to gather large amounts of data to be additionally used in research and to farther the scientific progress.
Blockchain technology could solve some of the issues that afflict the healthcare industry today. It could create a common, comprehensive database of health information that doctors and providers alike could access regardless of the original electronic medical system they used. Blockchain would provide higher security and privacy and an improved sharing of research results that subsequently could facilitate the development of new drugs and therapies for the patients.
For example, if a person is diagnosed with cancer, more often than not, they undergo the same treatment plan as millions of other persons with the same type of cancer, regardless of their particularities or with minimal differences.
In contrast, personalized medicine encompasses the individuals’ genetic makeup, health history, and other specifics, in favor of a better-targeted prevention, screening and treatment strategy that is able to customize the disease management plan to each individual patient.

AI technology and machine learning, through algorithms, can acquire information, learn, advise and predict based on the analysis of the enormous amount of data imputed. The data can be sourced from Blockchain secure databases. Could this be the future or one of the solutions to disease management? Healthcare is one of the fields where specialists predict that AI technology can have a significant impact. AI can analyze years of data from massive databases of companies and healthcare providers.
All of these tools, if implemented and used correctly could properly revolutionize the way we look at cancer management. From finding out the chances of a specific individual of developing cancer and selecting, which patients to undergo screening procedures based on their health history, to personalized drug regimens to effectively treat cancer. Based on the data analyzed from these highly secured, data-driven Blockchain databases, healthcare professionals could pair the patients with a treatment that is more likely to have success and fewer side effects. You could also use the same technology and algorithms to calculate and predict the rate of reoccurrence in specific patients.
Blockchain technology is already successfully used in other fields apart from medicine. For example, the protection and tracking of endangered species is being facilitated by a blockchain project that tracks rare animals. Another international group is using blockchain technologies to track the importation and sale of diamonds. Blockchain is used for border control, where customs agents can record and input passenger data and safely store it. A number of farmers in Wyoming are using blockchain to track their cattle, from the type of vaccines they received and what it eats to market their beef as “superior”. In conclusion, Blockchain technology could be one of the tools used to advance the fight against cancer.
An international, healthcare platform for oncological patients, such as OncoChain, that aims to connect providers to patients worldwide, could be at the forefront of the data-driven, patient-centered, personalized and effective oncological medical care.

For more details about OncoChain, please check:
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