While medical advances have reduced deaths, incidents of breast cancer continue to rise unabated

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00:00This Tuesday is World Cancer Day.

00:02The campaign was established 25 years ago

00:05at a summit in Paris.

00:06And since then, there's been slow but steady progress

00:09treating one of the world's deadly diseases,

00:11notably through immunotherapy.

00:14Now the rapid advance of artificial intelligence

00:16is opening up new possibilities.

00:18Peter O'Brien reports now one week ahead

00:21of this year's Paris AI Action Summit.

00:25This is the old Paris Stock Exchange building.

00:28And in the room behind me, more than 100 experts

00:31are trading ideas.

00:36They're taking part in a two-day hackathon

00:39to try and use artificial intelligence

00:41to find new ways of treating brain cancer.

00:46This is my first hackathon,

00:48and I'm really looking forward to it.

00:51This is my first hackathon,

00:53so really excited to deploy any bioinformatics expertise

00:57that I've hopefully built over the PhD.

00:59AI is, in principle, able to integrate all those sources

01:04and then find patterns that would usually

01:06not be accessible to humans.

01:08There's a multitude of possibilities,

01:10so the ultimate goal would be, of course, targeted therapy.

01:14They're working on vast data sets

01:16drawn from more than 100 patients

01:19with glioblastoma, a deadly disease

01:21which kills most of those diagnosed within two years.

01:25Its cells reach deep down into the brain,

01:28making it difficult to reach, even with immunotherapy,

01:31which has transformed treatments

01:33for other cancers in recent years.

01:35One potential promising avenue could be

01:38what's known as personalised treatment,

01:41and AI could be the key to this.

01:49Today, we're so far from that,

01:51because we don't understand anything about biology.

01:54Biology is too complicated for the human brain.

01:57It must be AI machines trying to do it,

01:59because it's just too complex.

02:19France24's Peter O'Brien.

02:21Well, we're going to keep talking on World Cancer Day now

02:24with Jejini Varghese.

02:26You're a leading consultant

02:27oncoplastic breast surgeon based in London.

02:30Thank you so much for taking the time to speak to us today

02:32on this World Cancer Day.

02:34Thank you for having me.

02:35So, we just heard there about that hackathon in Paris

02:38to try and find new AI technology

02:39to help with brain cancer.

02:41What do you think about that?

02:43Well, I think it's a great idea.

02:45to try and find new AI technology

02:46to help with brain cancer.

02:48There's also an AI trial that's been launched in the UK

02:51for breast cancer, which is your specialty.

02:53What more can you tell us about that?

02:55Yeah, that's right.

02:56So, it's really exciting.

02:57It's called the EDIDS trial,

02:59and it's actually looking at harnessing the power of AI

03:03to support the way radiology consultants work.

03:07So, women in the UK and around a lot of the countries

03:11where there are national screening programmes,

03:14women are invited to come in

03:15for their three-yearly or two-yearly mammograms.

03:19And what we're looking to do here

03:21is to use AI to identify changes on mammograms

03:25that will support the radiology consultant

03:28to make the accurate diagnosis.

03:31And the hope is that in the future,

03:33we will be able to...

03:34So, at the moment, we have two radiology consultants

03:37that have to look at every mammogram,

03:40and the possibility remains that AI

03:42will be able to support the radiology consultants,

03:45free up some of the manpower,

03:47improve the accuracy of the diagnosis,

03:50pick up changes that may have been missed,

03:52and we're really excited about this trial.

03:56Have there been other medical advances like this

03:58recently in the fight against breast cancer?

04:01Absolutely.

04:02So, the other area where AI has been used

04:04and will be used in the future a lot more

04:07will be histopathology.

04:08Again, we're looking at slides of breast cancer

04:11tissue, and AI will be able to pick up patterns.

04:15And that's another area where we think

04:17AI is going to be able to support

04:19consultant pathologists, for example.

04:22Another area is liquid biopsy,

04:24where this is an area that holds a lot of promise.

04:29So, this is where we look at the blood

04:31taken from a patient who has a new diagnosis

04:34of breast cancer or has finished breast cancer treatment.

04:38And then we're looking to see small amounts

04:41of circulating tumor DNA,

04:43which is very, very small amounts,

04:45but we are developing tests that are sensitive

04:48enough to pick these up.

04:50So, overall, I think AI holds a lot of promise,

04:53and the fact that the government is stepping up

04:56to fund these kind of large trials

04:59is really promising and really exciting as well.

05:02Well, tell us a bit more about the numbers

05:04of breast cancer in the world today.

05:05I mean, have there been changes

05:07in the figures around the world in recent years?

05:09Yeah.

05:10So, advances in screening and treatments

05:13have led to a decrease in the number of deaths

05:16due to the disease all around the world.

05:19However, the incidence of breast cancer

05:23sadly continues to rise,

05:25and this is seen globally.

05:28We see that the incidence is highest

05:30in the Western countries,

05:31mostly in North America, Europe, and Australia,

05:34where rapid rises are being seen

05:36in other parts of the world,

05:37which is quite concerning,

05:39which is why early detection becomes key,

05:42and prevention is a topic we have to keep talking about.

05:45This is a complex condition.

05:47It's not easy to talk about

05:49what really causes the disease.

05:51It is an interaction between genetics

05:53and environment and lifestyle factors.

05:55So, doing programs like you're doing

06:00with breast cancer awareness,

06:01advising women to go and seek screening

06:04for the disease,

06:05early detection is the key

06:07because if it can be picked up as early as possible,

06:11these chances of survival are great.

06:13So, there are lots of advances that ensure that.

06:16Indeed.

06:17But what about if and when breast cancer is,

06:20there's a diagnosis of breast cancer?

06:23I mean, is there access,

06:25enough access to being diagnosed

06:27and to getting treatment around the world today?

06:30Yeah, there are huge disparities, I understand.

06:33Like, in the Western world,

06:35we have moved on to offering personalized treatment.

06:38So, a lot of advancements have been made.

06:40Like you mentioned before,

06:41there's immunotherapy for hard-to-treat cancers,

06:43like triple negative cancers,

06:45and her two targeted treatments

06:47have completely revolutionized the way we treat women

06:50with traditionally hard-to-treat cancers.

06:53But access to these treatments

06:56continue to be difficult in several parts of the world.

06:59Mainly because of the finance and the cost involved.

07:02Working in the UK,

07:04we have the NHS that provides these kinds of treatments free.

07:09So, all women who are diagnosed with the condition

07:12have access to cutting-edge treatments.

07:15However, this is not the same for women

07:17who are in other parts of the world.

07:19We need to make sure that,

07:20regardless of where women are,

07:22they have access to the best possible treatment.

07:25Indeed.

07:26Even last week here in France,

07:27the French Parliament voted

07:28to make sure that breast cancer patients

07:30no longer have to pay any of their own money

07:32for things like breast implants or medical tattoos.

07:36France also voted to take on more cost of breast cancer care.

07:40How many governments around the world are doing that?

07:42And how much can a breast cancer patient

07:44be forced to pay out of pocket for their care?

07:47I think it is very expensive.

07:51So, when we're talking about these treatments,

07:53we're talking about thousands and thousands.

07:56It's really difficult to be able to pay out of your pocket.

07:59So, governments have to step up

08:01and support their citizens

08:04in accessing these life-saving treatments

08:06because the survival rates are critically,

08:10significantly affected by these treatments

08:12and everyone should have access.

08:14And it's difficult to step up

08:15to pay out of pocket for these treatments.

08:18Jijini, just one last word before you go about prevention.

08:21I mean, what should women be doing themselves

08:23to prevent breast cancer every day?

08:26The key things that we know is exercise,

08:28physical activity, increase physical activity

08:30to at least 150 minutes of activity

08:33of moderate level a week.

08:35It has been shown to decrease 13 types of breast cancer,

08:39one of which is breast cancer,

08:4013 types of cancers and one of them is breast cancer.

08:43We need to maintain a healthy BMI

08:46because we know that fat is a source of estrogen

08:48and that can increase your risk of breast cancer.

08:52Reduce alcohol consumption

08:54and also go for early screening

08:56and pick up any changes as early as possible.

08:59Jijini, thank you so much

09:00for sharing your expertise with us.

09:01We really do appreciate it on this World Cancer Day.

09:04Jijini Varghese, a consultant,

09:05oncoplastic breast surgeon based in London.

09:07Thank you very much for your time.

09:09Thank you for having me.

09:10And thanks to you for watching France 24.

09:12Don't go away.

09:13We're going to take a quick break.

09:14I'll be back in a few minutes with more.

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