Challenges and perspectives in use of artificial intelligence to support treatment recommendations in clinical oncology

Artificial intelligence (AI) promises to be the next revolutionary step in modern society. Yet, its role in all fields of industry and science need to be determined. One very promising field is represented by AI-based decision-making tools in clinical oncology leading to more comprehensive, personalized therapy approaches. In this review, the authors provide an overview on all relevant technical applications of AI in oncology, which are required to understand the future challenges and realistic perspectives for decision-making tools. In recent years, various applications of AI in medicine have been developed focusing on the analysis of radiological and pathological images. AI applications encompass large amounts of complex data supporting clinical decision-making and reducing errors by objectively quantifying all aspects of the data collected. In clinical oncology, almost all patients receive a treatment recommendation in a multidisciplinary cancer conference at the beginning and during their treatment periods. These highly complex decisions are based on a large amount of information (of the patients and of the various treatment options), which need to be analyzed and correctly classified in a short time. In this review, the authors describe the technical and medical requirements of AI to address these scientific challenges in a multidisciplinary manner. Major challenges in the use of AI in oncology and decision-making tools are data security, data representation, and explainability of AI-based outcome predictions, in particular for decision-making processes in multidisciplinary cancer conferences. Finally, limitations and potential solutions are described and compared for current and future research attempts.