Oncologists

can find more targeted cancer treatment options.

No doctor can keep up with the onrush of oncology studies published every week, much less determine which apply to each patient. But Watson can. Trained for 15,000 hours by specialists at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, Watson has ingested nearly 15 million pages from relevant journals and textbooks and continues to expand its knowledge.

This expertise is now flowing around the world and informs evidence-based treatment options for clinicians serving patients globally. Sites include six Manipal Hospitals in India, Bumrungrad International Hospital in Bangkok, Jupiter Medical Center in Florida and Svet zdravia’s network of 16 hospitals in Slovakia and Central and Eastern Europe–and soon across China.

Elsewhere, in trials at the University of North Carolina’s Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, Watson suggested potential treatment options that the tumor board hadn’t considered in one third of cases.

In addition, doctors are better able to understand their patients’ unique needs, right down to the genetic level. Watson for Genomics absorbs 10,000 new medical articles and details from 100 clinical trials every month. It applies what it learns to suggest highly targeted therapies for each patient’s individual cancer based on its understanding of a tumor’s molecular profile, allowing doctors to provide more personalized treatment for their patients.

This powerful new tool is helping even those patients who cannot travel to a specialized medical center. Through Quest Diagnostics, it is available to any oncologist in the United States, as an end-to-end solution. Illumina plans to integrate it with a tumor-sequencing workflow to provide oncologists cognitive information on-site.