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Cindy Kang, a PhD student in public health sciences at the Brown School, has received a Summer Fellows grant from the to conduct pediatric oncology research aimed at using artificial intelligence (AI) to improve outcomes for children diagnosed with cancer.
This summer, Kang is working under the mentorship of Brown School Professor Kim Johnson to study how AI can help predict the risk of metastasis at the time of a child鈥檚 initial cancer diagnosis. Metastases account for a large portion of cancer-related deaths in children. The project seeks to promote earlier detection and reduce mortality, with particular attention to how socioeconomic determinants, such as neighborhood income and education levels, influence survival rates among children with metastatic cancer.
They plan to combine AI with traditional epidemiology methods to develop a predictive model capable of estimating a child鈥檚 risk of developing metastases. Such a tool could help identify high-risk patients earlier, enabling more timely interventions and improving treatment strategies.
In a recent interview with , Johnson emphasized the critical role of social determinants in cancer outcomes.
鈥淲e definitely know that social factors influence survival outcomes,鈥� Johnson said. 鈥淗opefully our work can lead to less children getting diagnosed at a later-stage disease if we can start addressing these social factors, which impact the ability of a family to receive optimal cancer care.鈥�
In the same interview, Kang highlighted the advantage of using AI in the research.
鈥淔or the AI part, we鈥檙e basically using machine learning models to predict factors associated with pediatric cancer, metastasis and survival,鈥� Kang explained. 鈥淭he reason that we鈥檙e using AI models instead of traditional epidemiology models is the AI models provide better prediction power, and it can also overcome a lot of the statistical assumptions that we have to overcome, or we have to deal with when using traditional epidemiology methods. So that鈥檚 why we integrate AI, and also because AI is cutting-edge.鈥�
The St. Baldrick’s Foundation is the largest charitable supporter of childhood cancer research in the U.S.
Read the full interview at .