Two James physicians are part of an international clinical trial that utilizes an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm to better determine the risk factor of a patient’s colon cancer and whether or not chemotherapy is necessary after surgery. “The algorithm determines if a patient is high, medium or low risk category,” said Eric Miller, MD. Miller is a radiation oncologist who specializes in treating patients with gastro-intestinal cancers such as colon cancer. He has teamed with Vidya Arole, MD, MBBS, an assistant professor in the Department of pathology and an expert in the pathology of colon cancer. The clinical trial began after Arole met a team in Norway. “They had a tool, an algorithm, for stage 2 and 3 colon cancer patients and we decided to collaborate,” she explained. “They basically trained their algorithm from thousands of patients in Europe already treated for colon cancer to predict the outcomes,” Miller added. “The next step, here at Ohio State, was to use the algorithm on patients we had already treated, in which we knew the outcomes, and to see if the algorithm could accurately predict the outcomes … and it did a pretty good job.” Understanding and predicting the severity of a patient’s colon cancer and whether or not chemotherapy is needed after surgery has traditionally been the role of pathologists, in consultation with a patient’s oncologist. “We are the doctors who give a diagnosis by looking at the cells under a microscope traditionally [and now with digitized pathology],” Arole said. The James is a world leader in adopting and utilizing digital pathology. AI is the next step forward. “It’s like having a second set of eyes,” Arole said. The work is in the clinical trails stage and has great potential. “The first goal was to validate the findings from Norway here in the United States,” Miller said. “The next goal is to increase the patient numbers and make sure the results still stand.” Miller is optimistic the AI algorithm will continue to “learn” and help him and his James colleagues better understand which patients need the additional chemotherapy and which ones don’t.