{"id":259819,"date":"2025-09-27T22:42:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T22:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/259819\/"},"modified":"2025-09-27T22:42:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T22:42:09","slug":"flora-charts-the-future-of-ai-in-community-cancer-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/259819\/","title":{"rendered":"Flora Charts the Future of AI in Community Cancer Care"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The intention of artificial intelligence (AI) broadly speaking is to \u201cscale our ability to be human,\u201d according to Doug Flora, MD, FACC, LSSBB, who delivered the Keynote presentation entitled, \u2018The Role of AI in Transforming Community Cancer Care\u2019 during the inaugural MiBA Community Summit<\/strong><\/a>.1<\/p>\n

The origins of AI can be traced back to World War II, Flora explained, citing the infamous British mathematician, codebreaker, and early computer scientist, Alan Turing, who in many ways jumpstarted the computational analysis the world now relies on today. \u201cThis was the first time that we really applied algorithmic approaches to solving complex problems,\u201d Flora said.<\/p>\n

Flora is the editor-in-chief of AI in Precision Oncology, the executive medical director of The Yung Family Cancer Center at St. Elizabeth Healthcare, the Robert and Deli Ann Sathe Endowed Chair, and President-Elect of the Association of Cancer Care Centers.<\/p>\n

What Were Some of the Pivotal Demonstrations of AI\u2019s Capabilities?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fast forward to 1997 and 2011, respectively, with IBM\u2019s Deep Blue supercomputer defeating six-time world champion, Garry Kasparov, in chess and IBM\u2019s Watson DeepQA computer defeating Jeopardy\u2019s two all-time champions, Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings, there had become little doubt that the world would remain unaffected from the power and potential AI held.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe world blew up in November of 2022. [We\u2019ve] all seen GPT-5, Claude, and all the various permutations of [other platforms] that have become a part of our daily lives,\u201d Flora said. \u201cNow, GPT has over 300 million users, and its transformative impact is touching all our lives as oncologists.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the question remains: How will AI affect community oncology centers in the short term? In an audience poll, Flora revealed that the primary goal of AI in the community setting is to reinforce evidence-based treatments (Figure<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

Taking a step back to consider the long-term effects of AI, Flora stated that the potential reach of AI within health care is several-fold, noting that it can help accelerate drug discovery and development, enhance clinical development, improve cancer diagnostics, address regulatory and health care professionals\u2019 challenges, and streamline workflows and reduce costs.<\/p>\n

Where Do AI\u2019s Diagnostic Capabilities Fit Into the Equation?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Diagnostics is another untapped area in which AI can help with medical imaging, pathology analysis, liquid biopsy analysis, multi-omics data integration, and clinician decision support, Flora said.<\/p>\n

In a report published by Grandview Research, they estimated that the global AI in cancer diagnostics market size was $268.1 million in 2024 and is projected to reach $996.1 million by 2030, reflecting an increase of 24.1% over a 5-year period.2 The report attributes the growth to the rising health care IT costs globally, the shortage of health care professionals, and the increasing demand for early detection and classification of diseases.<\/p>\n

The sweeping shift toward greater use of AI is one Flora sees in his own practices, noting that the cancer treatment programs he oversees are very AI enabled, using AI to read CT scans, mammograms, and digitized pixelated slides.1 They\u2019ve also adopted GI Genius colonoscopy for computer-aided detection of polyps. \u201cWe\u2019re seeing that [we can] move now through pathologic analysis and detecting disease states on these digital, pixelated slides with a higher alacrity than a Johns Hopkins\u2013trained prostate cancer expert,\u201d Flora said.<\/p>\n

What About My Concerns as a Practicing Community Oncologist?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Flora took the time to acknowledge the hesitancy that some may have in welcoming AI into their practices given the potential fallout, simultaneously urging providers to step forward to be part of the discussions and part of the legislation that will enable them to protect themselves and their patients. \u201cWe really have to take care as doctors to make sure that we\u2019re being responsible about this, and we are at the wheel this time, so that AI isn\u2019t thrust upon us, and [we\u2019re left not knowing what] we\u2019re doing,\u201d Flora said.<\/p>\n

It is at the helm where providers can have the greatest impact on their patients and their care, Flora explained, citing a report published in JAMA Special Communication in AI in Medicine, where members of the FDA estimated that AI has the potential to reduce the cost of drug development by up to 70% and cut the time required by half, which would in essence drastically reduce the cost and availability of life-saving medications.3<\/p>\n

In an exclusive interview with OncLive\u00ae following his presentation, Flora stated in conclusion, \u201cI wanted to paint with a pretty broad-brush stroke how these things are coming at us, regardless of our willingness to accept it. We can bury our head in the sand and act concerned and let it happen to us like we did the medical record 15 years ago with the arrival of the EMR. Or we can study, and we can dig in, and we can start to get in the sandbox ourselves because we\u2019re curious.\u201d<\/p>\n

Disclosures: Flora is a speaker for Tempus AI, MiBA, Bristol Myers Squibb, Novartis, Haystack, and Natera; consultant\/advisor for Viz AI, VieCure, Total Health Oncology, Patient Point, and Azra AI; executive for the Association of Cancer Care Centers, American Cancer Society, Faith Community Pharmacy, and AI in Precision Oncology; and has ownership interests in Tensor Black, Inc.<\/p>\n

References<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Flora D. The role of AI in transforming community cancer care. Presented at: MiBA Community Summit; September 27-28, 2025; Scottsdale, Arizona.<\/li>\n
  2. Grand View Research. AI in cancer diagnostics market (2025 – 2030). Accessed September 27, 2025. https:\/\/www.grandviewresearch.com\/industry-analysis\/artificial-intelligence-cancer-diagnostics-market-report<\/li>\n
  3. Warraich HJ, Tazbaz T, Califf RM, et al. FDA perspective on the regulation of artificial intelligence in health care and biomedicine. JAMA. 2025;333(3):241-247. doi:10.1001\/jama.2024.21451<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The intention of artificial intelligence (AI) broadly speaking is to \u201cscale our ability to be human,\u201d according to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":259820,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[691,738,158,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-259819","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-technology","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115278678771513085","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}