Moving towards a unified classification of glioblastomas utilizing artificial intelligence and deep machine learning integration

Abstract

Glioblastoma a deadly brain cancer that is nearly universally fatal. Accurate prognostication and the successful application of emerging precision medicine in glioblastoma relies upon the resolution and exactitude of classification. We discuss limitations of our current classification systems and their inability to capture the full heterogeneity of the disease. We review the various layers of data that are available to substratify glioblastoma and we discuss how artificial intelligence and machine learning tools provide the opportunity to organize and integrate this data in a nuanced way. In doing so there is the potential to generate clinically relevant disease sub-stratifications, which could help predict neuro-oncological patient outcomes with greater certainty. We discuss limitations of this approach and how these might be overcome. The development of a comprehensive unified classification of glioblastoma would be a major advance in the field. This will require the fusion of advances in understanding glioblastoma biology with technological innovation in data processing and organization.

Keywords: artificial intelligence; classification; glioblastoma; glioma; machine learning.

Figure 1

Example of multisource data input and integration for deep learning guided classification of glioblastoma.