“Artificial intelligence will greatly help treat cancer in the future”

Borrega no longer uses as much morphine as before, which is a good sign because patients no longer need it as much. “When I look at a cancer patient and think about his prospects for the future, everything is much more optimistic. If ten years ago they had a short life expectancy, now they have at least a 50% chance of recovery and, until the worst point of the disease comes, there can be many improvements.

The picture changed when the human genome was sequenced and we began to understand how cancer works. “Today, most tumors are treated with personalized medicine,” Borrega says. This refers to the fact that they use a genetic profile to determine treatment.

“Probably in a very short time almost all of them will be, and artificial intelligence will greatly help in treatment,” he says. “Once the structure of the proteins, genes involved and genes not involved is included and processed, it will be a great achievement,” he adds.

Recognizing that “cancer is still a deadly disease, but there are now many ways to cure it,” Borrega demonstrates in practice that survival rates have increased. “There are no places available in day hospitals and this is because there are 20% more patients every year, meaning they are living longer and have access to more treatments.” He also claims that there are not enough oncologists.

Challenge for the healthcare system

This is a “challenge” for the health system, and in this sense it places most of its hopes on early diagnosis campaigns. “It is expected that the greatest impact from this type of program will be from 2030. This will be when the most common tumors are diagnosed earlier and therefore do not require treatment. Consequently, the care burden will be lower. But we’ll have to wait for that to happen.”

When it comes to prevention, he says we should be alert to any unusual symptoms. And as examples, he cites persistent hoarseness, a persistent cough in a non-smoker, or a change in bowel habits.