UPMC Enterprises portfolio company, Realyze Intelligence, has been working with UPMC researchers to try and determine if sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) is appropriate in early-stage breast cancer patients younger than 70 years old.
Realyze Intelligence uses AI and NLP to analyze health care data and help organizations clinically understand patients and patient populations in a more precise way. Realyze’s technology rapidly reads both clinical notes and unstructured data from the EMR to provide a deeper and more comprehensive view of the patient, enabling better treatment options and overall care.
With oncology as a major focus area, Realyze has processed tens of thousands of oncology patients, including their full medical charts, totaling more than 10 million documents that have run through the Realyze system. Collaborating with researchers at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, the Realyze technology is being used in this advanced research, which can help improve treatment options for cancer patients.
Past research shows that SLNB can be avoided in most women over 70 and the use of SLNB for these women may be a low-value surgery. By using the Realyze platform, UPMC physician-scientists can identify precisely defined cohorts of patients who may not benefit from SLNB.
Initial findings from this work examined data from the EMRs of all 602 early-stage breast cancer patients who received SLNBs from January 2015 to December 2017 at 15 UPMC hospitals in western Pennsylvania. The data were then abstracted into a breast cancer patient model with a focus on lymph node identification and positivity. Results showed there was no difference in the node positivity rate between patients who were older or younger than 70, especially for women with stage I disease, suggesting that current guidance for SLNBs could be expanded to more patients.
“It is an honor for Realyze to participate with the world class research team at UPMC Magee and the Hillman Cancer Center on this collaboration. Seeing the results and impact it can have on patient care only makes us more excited about the possibilities for improving other activities like clinical trial matching in the future,” said Aaron Brauser, president and chief executive officer of Realyze.
Learn more by reading the press release and follow Realyze to stay up to date on the latest news.
