Cancer is one of the most dreaded diagnoses in the United States and around the globe, yet at least a million Americans will hear it.
What is in cancer that makes it scary? It's the fact there's no definitive cure to it. Further, although treatments such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy have shown to be effective in tumor regression and remission, they also often harm normal cells, further impairing a patient's immune system. Most of all, they are not designed according to a patient's unique needs.
Intel wishes to contribute to the world's fight against cancer by launching an ambitious tech project known as Collaborative Cancer Cloud.
In an article published by Eric Dishman, the current health and life sciences writer of Intel, on Tuesday, August 18, he shared that this platform as a service tool will promote precision medicine through analytics.
Precision medicine uses the genome of a person to understand the nature of the disease and provide a more individualized or tailored treatment that promotes a much better outcome than other mainstream therapies.
As a collaborative solution, hundreds of doctors, researchers, and members of the medical field can share genetic data in a secure setting. And since the information is available in the cloud, it is accessible anytime and anywhere. As data accumulate, it's now possible for health care practitioners to find a targeted solution for a specific type of cancer within 24 hours, which Intel hopes to achieve in 2020.
At the beginning of the project, Intel will partner with Oregon Health and Science University through Knight Cancer Institute. However, the company expects that at least 2 more institutions will participate by next year to increase the number of patients in the database.
As the project progresses, it will then become more open to other institutions, whether private or public, in the United States and around the world. They can rely on the existing platform or develop a customized solution based on the Intel platform.