An AI-based system proved its mettle in screening patients in immunotherapy trials, according to Dan Gebow, chief innovation officer at Bioclinica.
Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, developers of cancer immunotherapies worried that the novel coronavirus would interfere with their clinical trial results.
In previous years, the scientific community established that immunotherapy can rarely cause interstitial lung disease (ILD). An umbrella term covering several conditions such as pulmonary fibrosis that lead to scarring of the lungs, ILD also arises in some patients with COVID-19.
The fact that ILD can arise from COVID-19 and cancer immunotherapies complicated oncology clinical trials, recalled Gebow at Bioclinica, which provides clinical trial adjudication products and services. “Patients in immunotherapy clinical trials were showing up at the emergency room with some type of lung infection,” Gebow said. “You can imagine if you’re the pharmaceutical company…