In 2024, about 9,620 children in the U.S. under the age of 15 were estimated to be diagnosed with cancer. Each year, about 400,000 children are diagnosed with cancer around the world, and in the U.S., now about 15,780 children between the ages of birth and 19 are diagnosed with cancer. Childhood cancer is a worldwide problem; about 44% of cases are not diagnosed. The overall 5-year survival rate for childhood cancer, however, is close to 80%.

When a child has cancer, their family has to pay a significant amount of money for diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up care. One study found that four main things contribute to these costs: having to travel for treatment; losing money because a parent loses their job or is laid off; having to pay for treatment out of pocket; and not being able to use assistance programs to help or replace lost income. For these families, their child, who needs treatment, results in an inordinate upset in every aspect of their lives.

If cancer is affecting so many children, what might be the cause? Now we have new information on how cancer utilizes a child’s body’s development in the nervous system to bend it to the purpose of disease, disability, or death. It all comes down to the way our nervous system develops, and therein lies the backdoor to diseases, like cancer.

As I’ve indicated previously, our nervous system is like a series of highways that push out in interconnecting networks to control everything we do, think, feel, or don’t feel, such as those automatic actions of breathing, the heart beating, blood pressure, etc. The most vital structure, which is the highway, runs like a cable (the axon). What cable could do any work if its electrical transmission wasn’t protected? Herein lies the culprit or victim of cancer: the Schwann cells.

Axons are covered by individual Schwann cells that wrap around them like the layers we see on onions. Made of fatty material, they protect the axon and facilitate its work, moving electrical charges even faster via tiny spaces between each of these cells (the node of Ranvier).

The Schwann cell plasma membrane is very high in lipids, and cholesterol is especially important for putting together the myelin sheath. Working together, the Schwann cells, the myelin sheath they create, and the nodes of Ranvier protect and help with transmission. Think of it like microscopic links of sausage, if you wish.

But cancer doesn’t limit itself to just the axon because it is found in the areas where axons connect with others (synapses), and cancer is forming its connections to integrate into the nervous system, especially the brain. These tumor cells in the brains of children, especially gliomas, have an inordinate ability to tap into normal nerve developmental connections in a manner that permits them to thrive and grow within the system. A child’s growth, therefore, is an opportunity for cancer, and it seizes it.

The most dangerous thing about high-grade gliomas is that the cancer cells spread into healthy brain tissue, joining the tumor to the healthy brain tissue. This helps explain why gliomas are so hard to treat. They are so sneaky—they become part of the brain. But there are even more discoveries being made about these cancers that have shocked researchers.

Gliomas change brain circuitry to suit their own needs by taking over the brain’s neuroplasticity through synaptic remodeling and changing the brain’s architecture. Thought and the mind’s activity through speech mechanisms also seem to help the tumor grow, showing an unexpected link between the mind and the brain.

It had not occurred to scientists that cancer cells, even those in the brain, could talk to each other in this way. The tumor’s constant electrical contact may have been helping it to live or even grow. It is changing the way cancer research is proceeding, and the discoveries present new evidence for hope that medications may, in some way, disrupt these cells’ ability to communicate and grow.

Today, cancer neuroscience is a new area of medicine that grew out of the findings. Now the search begins to beat cancer at its own game and save lives through our new understanding and the development of treatments for it.

The post The Nervous System and Its Relationship to Cancer’s Hacks appeared first on Medika Life.

Can ChatGPT and OpenAI compete with human creativity? Its ability to process is rooted in machine learning — the ability to scour in a blink a wealth of databases, and pirated content, and mimic the human experience. Can a computerized clone of humanity’s documented contributions be as vibrant and present as a human? Right now, my experience as a user is absolutely not! Technology cannot differentiate between information and its dark side, misinformation. It lacks head, heart and gut at this time. That will change in time.

Poets and creative writers and strategists and scientists fear not. Curious, creative and inquisitive minds will master this technology rather than let the technology sideline humanity. While the typewriter was always nearby, Nobel Prize author Ernst Hemingway wrote — and rewrote — many of his famed novels by hand. Yet, he didn’t shun the technology of his day. He found that typing what he had written by hand allowed him to improve it.

Bicycles and Horseless Carriages

Yes, bicycles and horseless carriages led to the horse and buggy’s retirement. That’s one machine’s efficiency versus the machine’s efficacy. But the person or health system that embeds AI into its patient care model will outrun those that shut their doors to keep it out.

Likely the inquisitive radiologist who adds AI into the mix will arrive at a diagnosis faster and with greater accuracy. They won’t abandon human judgment; they will use technology to go beyond the general report rising to higher and higher levels of diagnostic guidance.

Beyond enhanced predictive ability, AI will elevate gifted and early adapter medical practitioners to a heightened level of performance. While leading doctors may not always have the greatest bedside manners, they demonstrate consistently heightened clinical ability. AI must never be a medical replacement for learned minds and human connections — it augments their well-honed clinical skills.

“I Don’t Have Time to Read EMRs”

During the last 12 days of my noted physician father-in-law’s life, a nurse at a leading hospital replied to my questions about his care with a worrying admission: “I don’t have time to read patient records.” That admission is symptomatic of systemic failures. EMRs are not standardized; patient data cannot easily be shared between providers or accessed by patients visiting multiple hospitals. This leads to duplicative tests and procedures and can lead to medical errors and misdiagnoses, sometimes with catastrophic consequences. And it also leads to health professional burnout!

In FRAGMENTED: A Doctor’s Quest to Piece Together American Health Care physician-author Ilana Yurkiewicz, MD, outlines how cracks in the healthcare system cost us time, energy, and lives. With a combination of real-world experiences, she strikes at the heart of the assumption when you see a doctor: the doctor knows your medical story and makes decisions based on that story. Wrong.

We are our medical historians. When we switch doctors, we begin again to create our medical history. Critical details of life-saving treatment plans need to be made aware of muddled electronic charts. The doctors we see change according to specialty, hospital shifts, or an insurer’s whims.

Tom Lawry, the bestselling author of Hacking Healthcare, the former national director of AI for Microsoft, and now a global advisor on how AI impacts health systems, comments on a UPenn Health study using AI analyzed all inpatient and outpatient notes written in the EMR from 2015 to 2020. Analyzing more than 1.96 million unique patient entries, 50.1% of input was duplicated from prior notes about the same patient — no wonder the nurse didn’t have time to read my father-in-law’s EMR report. It’s not surprising that Lawry believes “AI and the intelligence revolution will reboot an ailing system.”

We Have Nothing to Fear But Misaligned IQ and EQ

Most worries about AI are rooted in our imagination — not our experiences. Advances in artificial/augmented intelligence (AI) have the potential to advance patient care and improve healthcare outcomes. ChatGPT, as an AI-powered conversational agent, offers numerous advantages in delivering care. It thrives on heightened creativity and cognitive effort. It needs humanity to be additive.

Here is my Top Seven List of expected advantages AI and ChatGPT will deliver to patient care:

1. Enhanced Patient Engagement and Education: AI-powered conversational agents like Chatbot can engage patients in conversations, collecting and synthesizing information about their condition, treatment options, and self-care practice. This interactive engagement can empower patients to take an active role in their health — most notably by speaking openly about their needs leading to better adherence to treatment plans and improved health outcomes.

2. 24/7 Access to Healthcare: ChatGPT offers round-the-clock accessibility, allowing patients to seek healthcare advice anytime. This feature is particularly beneficial for patients in rural areas, those with limited mobility, or those needing immediate medical assistance — a medical AI researcher. AI-connected systems can quickly analyze, triage, and move patients into the care system.

3. Predictive Analytics for Disease Detection: AI algorithms can analyze patient data, including medical records, sensor data from wearables, and lifestyle factors, to identify patterns and risk factors associated with various diseases. Leveraging predictive analytics, AI can detect early warning signs and predict the likelihood of disease (re)occurrence. This enables health providers to intervene, implement preventive measures, and initiate early treatment, improving patient outcomes and reducing healthcare costs.

4. Efficient Triage and Decision Support: ChatGPT can assist in the triage process by asking questions and gathering patient information, helping to identify urgent cases, and redirecting them to the right health professionals. AI algorithms can analyze patient data and provide decision support to healthcare providers, aiding in accurate diagnoses and treatment recommendations. Ideally, the technology can do a better job helping medical staff to look at the “whole patient” and connect the dots — essential for “Zebra-like patients.”

5. Personalized Care and Remote Monitoring: AI algorithms can analyze patient data, including medical records, lab results, and wearable device data, to generate personalized insights. ChatGPT can use the information to provide tailored recommendations for lifestyle modifications, medication adherence, and disease management. Additionally, AI-powered monitoring systems can track patient vitals remotely and alert healthcare providers in case of abnormal readings as we shift more and more to home recovery and care.

6. Medical Imaging Analysis: AI algorithms can analyze medical images, such as X-rays, MRIs, and CT scans, to aid radiologists and clinical experts in the detection and diagnosis of conditions. These algorithms can identify abnormalities and predict disease progression. AI-based image analysis amplifies the professional’s efficiency, reducing human error, and speeding up the diagnosis process. The net result will be better patient outcomes.

7. Data-driven Health Research: AI algorithms can analyze vast amounts of patient data to identify patterns, detect trends, and generate insights that inform healthcare research and policy-making. This was key to addressing COVID-19 and accelerating vaccine-like treatments to mitigate illness. By leveraging AI and ChatGPT, researchers gain deeper insight into disease progression, treatment effectiveness, and population health trends. These insights can drive evidence-based decision-making and contribute to advancing medical knowledge. This will be critical to rallying to resolve the next pandemic.

Is it Really Human Versus Machine?

AI and ChatGPT almost guarantee several potential advantages in patient care. It’s not a perfect system nor a replacement for people. John Nosta, a global innovation theorist in speaking with Artur Olesch, founder and editor-in-chief of aboutDigitalHealth.com, said:

“While AI has shown promise in areas such as image recognition, natural language processing, and autonomous systems, there are still areas where AI struggles, such as understanding context, making subjective judgments, and dealing with incomplete or noisy data. Additionally, there are ethical considerations around the use of AI, including issues related to privacy, bias, and fairness.”

I still prefer to rely on Microsoft Spell Check than memorizing Webster’s Dictionary. I also prefer a physician who deploys human skill, amplified knowledge and the might of another 10,000 physicians’ aggregated experience to analyze and treat serious disease. In an AI-influenced world, we will still need to secure patent protection and copywrite guarantees for unique intellectual property and creative effort. But closing the door on this technology is to condemn too many people to an ill-fated end.

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