Tale of Solving Two Cancers: CML with Human Intelligence (HI) and Glioblastoma with HI-AI Collaboration
Doug Hohulin
Working to Save 1 Billion Lives with AI, When the AI System Has to Be Right: Healthcare, Road Safety/AV, Governance/Policy, Energy and Education. Co-Author of Tech Power Healing -The Future of Medicine in the AI Age.
I am working on how AI can help with avoidable deaths. In 2023, a total of 61,651,608 people died.? How many could be avoided? How can you avoid death this week, this year, in the next 10 years.? Can AI help make us healthier today and avoid death in the future?
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Tale of Solving Two Cancers: CML with Human Intelligence (HI) and Glioblastoma with HI-AI Collaboration
Cancer touches all of us at some point. I recently attended the funeral of a friend who lost his battle with glioblastoma, a devastating brain cancer. Many years ago, my father also passed away from pancreatic cancer.? 15 years ago, I had another friend who was diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML). Remarkably, after just a few months of treatment, her cancer was undetectable, and she has been living cancer-free ever since.
This story is written with hope: the hope that every cancer will be cured within the next 20 years through the relentless efforts of doctors, scientists, and innovators. It took 40 years of human intelligence (HI) to find the breakthrough for CML with the development of Gleevec (imatinib). Today, with AI as a partner with HI, we may witness cures for cancers like glioblastoma in far less time. The stories of these two cancers highlight the intersection of perseverance, science, and technology—one solved by human ingenuity alone, and another on the verge of a breakthrough through the collaboration of HI and AI.
The Long Journey to Curing CML: A Triumph of Human Intelligence
The story of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) is one of persistence, heartbreak, and, ultimately, triumph. In 1959, researchers discovered an unusual genetic anomaly—the Philadelphia Chromosome—in the blood cells of leukemia patients. This fusion of two genes created a new, rogue enzyme that drove the uncontrolled production of white blood cells. But the path from discovery to cure would take 40 years of hard work, innovation, and setbacks.
In the 1990s, Dr. Brian Druker and his team made a breakthrough with Gleevec, a targeted therapy that inhibited the rogue enzyme responsible for CML. It marked a paradigm shift in cancer treatment. Before Gleevec, patients diagnosed with CML had a life expectancy of fewer than five years, but with the drug, the cancer could be controlled—and even eradicated—by taking a single pill daily.
The impact was nothing short of miraculous. As documented in Jessica Wapner’s book The Philadelphia Chromosome: A Genetic Mystery, a Lethal Cancer, and the Improbable Invention of a Life-Saving Treatment, Gleevec transformed a death sentence into a manageable condition. Today, patients with CML can expect to live normal lifespans, thanks to the power of HI-driven discovery.
The chart from Vinay Prasad MD MPH’s talk illustrates the transformation in the treatment of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) and life expectancy, thanks to the drug Gleevec (imatinib).
see this video and slide from the talk related to CML NURSING EDITION: Great and Crazy things we do in Oncology | Lecture to Nurses & Staff ( youtube.com )
Glioblastoma: A Race Against Time
Glioblastoma, however, remains an unsolved mystery. It is a highly aggressive brain cancer that offers patients little hope, with most surviving less than 15 months after diagnosis. Traditional treatments like surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy provide only marginal benefits, often damaging healthy tissue alongside the cancer cells.
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But a revolution may be on the horizon, consider the case of Openwater, a digital healthcare company founded by Dr. Mary Lou Jepsen “to explore an idea: What if advancements in fields as diverse as consumer electronics, semiconductor device physics, and artificial intelligence could come together for a future where the profound act of curing disease becomes a reality for all, transcending borders and transforming the course of human health. … promising to diagnose and treat a spectrum of diseases, from aggressive cancers to mental health disorders and debilitating strokes and beyond touching on treatments for COVID/long COVID, stimulating stem cells, and rejuvenation of senescent cells.”-- ?Open water: About | LinkedIn
?Their work on glioblastoma offers a glimpse of hope for future cancer treatments.
See the?video by Mary Lou Jepsen CEO at IS 2024 Mary Lou Jepson
AI-Driven Breakthroughs in Glioblastoma Research
Openwater’s latest clinical trials on mice show unprecedented results. With just a single 10-minute non-invasive dose on day 0, glioblastoma tumors shrank significantly. This is an extraordinary achievement, considering the treatment operates at a diagnostic intensity level lower than those experienced by pregnant women during ultrasounds for the past 50 years. Autopsies of the treated mice confirmed that healthy tissues were unharmed, marking a major advancement over traditional treatments like chemotherapy and radiation.
Curing Cancer Faster with AI: Accelerating Innovation
The timeline for finding cures is shrinking rapidly. It took four decades of human effort to develop Gleevec, but could AI and HI cure glioblastoma in the next five years – that is the hope. AI accelerates research by analyzing vast datasets, simulating treatment protocols, and identifying potential therapies with unmatched speed.
As Dr. Atul Gawande highlights, the human body can fail in over 13,600 ways, but with only 6,000 drugs and 4,000 medical and surgical procedures available, there is still much work to do.- https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2011/09/the-battle-for-medicine%E2%80%99s-soul/ https://www.ted.com/talks/atul_gawande_how_do_we_heal_medicine
Dr. David Fajgenbaum reminds us that 9,000 diseases still lack an FDA-approved therapy. Every Cure - Chasing My Cure: A Doctor's Race to Turn Hope into Action
The tools we have today—AI, wearable devices, and personalized medicine—give us reason to believe that these gaps can be filled in the coming decades.
The Power of Human-AI Collaboration in Medicine
AI isn’t replacing human intelligence—it is amplifying it. Just as Gleevec was born from years of research, clinical trials, and scientific intuition, future breakthroughs will result from the collaborative efforts of doctors, scientists, and AI systems.
AI offers unique advantages to help with human collaboration:
This partnership between human intelligence and ingenuity and AI is ushering in a new era of medicine—one where cures are discovered faster, treatments are safer, and diseases that were once incurable become manageable.
A Future Without Cancer: The Next 20 Years
The success of Gleevec and the potential of Openwater’s and other companies glioblastoma research demonstrate that the future of cancer treatment may be bright. The hope is that within the next 20 years, every cancer will have a cure, and no patient will have to face a diagnosis without treatment options. AI, HI, and intelligence augmentation (IA) are the tools that could make this future a reality.
The journey from despair to hope—from the fatal prognosis of CML to a single pill that offers a cure—reminds us that nothing may be impossible when science, technology, and human willpower align. The battle against glioblastoma is far from over, but with HI and AI at the helm, we may be closer than ever to victory.
For those of us who have lost loved ones to cancer, this journey is deeply personal. It is a reminder of what is at stake and a call to action to push forward, knowing that every breakthrough brings us one step closer to a world free of cancer. In the end, it is not just about technology or medicine—it is about the lives we save and the hope we create.