Helath experts say Lung cancer care and treatment in Africa and the Middle East can be more enhanced with the introduction of Artificial Intelligence, AI in the screening processes.
Axxording to the experts, Al can play a crucial role in addressing workforce and technical capacity gaps, making lung cancer screening more accessible and effective especially in population based screenings.
This was the basis of their discussion at a roundtable on Lung Ambition Alliance Middle East and Africa (LAA MEA), on providing insights in advancing the conversation on lung cancer early detection in the regions.
Some policy recommendations by the discussants include incorporating Al and digital technology to alleviate pressures in resource-constrained countries and expand program reach, while striving to enhance the education of the healthcare workforce on lung cancer screening.
The CEO & Founder of AlignnEficient Health Consultancies (Dubai, London), UAE- United Arab Emirates, Dr. Sawsan AlMadhi says the regions should imply the amazing advances in artificial intelligence to detect cancer early and treat it appropriately.
“There’s enough based organs we want UAE to cover. The thing was that from a different perspective there was emotional and access perspectives, women could not access those mammograms for many reasons.
“Now to other things that we did back in 2010, the screening age was 50 years old and even the WHO at that time was advising governments not to do a population based screening and if done should be at 50 years old. When we started doing the screening at UAE, we started at age 40. And that was against all evidence because we had real life evidences. If I had use the guidelines at that time, I would have missed half of the women that were diagnosed in the next decades of breast cancer.
“At the end of the day, I look at people, I don’t see data, I see life, I see families, I see a man that can die because of undetected lungs cancer , a woman that can die because of undetected breast cancer. I just want us to be hopeful with the amazing advances especially in Egypt and UAE and in all the regions, to look at it and say lets us move forward,” she opined.
On the issue of Stigma, Dr. AlMadhi continued “I have documented 16 breast cancer patients stories across the region, Morocco, Egypt, Lebanon, Libya, Saudi Arabia and its interesting that stigma is like a common platform for all but how stigma is perceived by the patient, by the immediate family, by the community and by the government is totally different. I remember a breast cancer survivor from Egypt was saying that discussions in the media about cancer always portray the patients as dying , that’s doesn’t reflect who we are she said and it doesn’t speak about us, of course we have good days and bad days but eventually most of us are surviving and thriving’. And I think that the positive media should be there for the patients. I believe that highlighting amazing success stories of survivors is important. Formulating patients voice in a way that it can bring hope and eliminate stigma, is vital,” she concluded.
Scientific Committee Member, Presidential Initiative for Cancer Early Detection (PICE), and consultant at the National Cancer Institute, Egypt, Dr. Ahmed Magdy says full trust should not be given to AI in lung cancer treatment without proper scrutiny to ascertain its effectiveness.
“I have to clarify first of all my points, I was not against adopting or disapproving artificial intelligence in lungs cancer care and treatment, but since we are talking science here, it’s important to actually know that you don’t have to accept entire project or program as approving strategy, you have to back it up with evidence. It’s okay to go on trial kind of basis but take practical steps.
“If you are using the AI, you have to bear in mind that you will go on trial basis to see how efficient it is rather than waste your time and effort on something that is not going to really be efficient,” he said.
Executive Director, Presidential Initiative for Cancer Early Detection (PICE), Egypt, Dr. Khaled Abdel Aziz, is of opinion that lung cancer treatment should go beyond data and science to real life experiences.
“During the COVID era, we detected a lot of small regions that were proven to be malignant. Sometimes in countries like ours, we have fragmented issues, we have authorities for the chest hospitals, we have cancer hospitals, but sometimes the communication flow is not like we want it to be.
“Again, what we are also seeking is that there will be evaluation on pollution because there is a lot of evidence on that. Exposure to pollution in high risk areas due to population is a big problem. We are starting with the prevalent population and trying to adjust our infrastructure to be more environmental friendly,” he said.
According to Dr. Aziz, reviewing non-smoker population and smoker population to ascertain the truth about lung cancer should be one of the data.
“We have a lot of jobs in terms of estimating our radiologists to be able to write a long-lens.
We know that every detail counts in survival of lungs cancer. So detecting them as early as possible is key. It needs a lot of coordination with the radiologists, with the pathologists, with oncologists, we need a lot of awareness to help these professionals, and it begins with the role of the media, it’s is very important, since the media has the roles in mediating that lung cancer is no more an aggressive disease but something that could be cured with very effective treatment.
Breast cancer mentality has shifted in the past decade, we can also see the same change in lung cancer which is more difficult, let us talk frankly about the stigma around smoking , because the patient thinks that he is reason for the disease, communities thinks that the patient is the reason for the disease , it’s important for the media to intervene in mindsets changing, ” he explained.
Some Takeouts for Health Professions
-Use your discernment to save lives not just based on data.
-You start within your community by speaking to people around you.
-Start voicing raised concerns.
-Use the social medial to propagate your findings including putting vital information across.
-Look for people that have influence within the community, like village heads, influencers and traditional institutions and liaise with them.
Takeouts for media practitioners in curbing lungs cancer
-The media can change the stigma surrounding lungs cancer with stories that can change mindsets.
-It should be made known that lungs cancer is no more aggressive because of remedial treatment.
-As of the latest data available up to 2023, approximately 236,000 people in the United States are diagnosed with lung cancer each year.
Lung Cancer Incidents
Globally, the incidence is estimated to be around 2.2 million cases annually.
The good news is that with public awareness, cancer can be controlled while early diagnosis and detection is key to survival.
Confidence Okwuchi
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