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Can AI Help Predict the Spread of Melanoma?

September 27, 2021

You’ve probably heard about artificial intelligence (AI) – machines programmed so they can “think” like humans and mimic our actions. Did you know that AI is increasingly used in medicine? The newly expanded Atlantic Melanoma Center at Overlook Medical Center is leading the way with a clinical trial directed by Eric D. Whitman, MD, a surgical oncologist and a board-certified general surgeon, by using AI combined with genetic profiles that have been shown to help make lymph node biopsies much more accurate.

“New tools like this will help us better understand patients’ risk of their melanoma spreading and perhaps even help some avoid sentinel lymph node biopsy entirely,” says Dr. Whitman, who is medical director for Atlantic Health System Cancer Care, founding director of the Atlantic Melanoma Center, and interim chief research officer for Atlantic Health System. “It is studies like these – available at few locations worldwide – as well as our use of the latest evidence-based treatments that make our center at Overlook Medical Center and Morristown Medical Center among the nation’s most advanced.”

Working with surgical oncologists Kai Bickenbach, MD; Irene E. Rossmer, MD; and Lee F. Starker, MD, PhD, at Overlook Medical Center, Dr. Whitman is leading innovative melanoma clinical trials, including studies of treatments that work with the patient’s immune system to fight cancer. A number of these promising studies are available through the Breakthrough Oncology Accelerator, a research partnership between Atlantic Health System Cancer Care and the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) of Phoenix, AZ.

ATLANTIC MEDICAL GROUP
Drs. Whitman, Bickenbach, Rossmer and Starker are part of Atlantic Medical Group, a multispecialty network of health care providers. To make an appointment at the Atlantic Melanoma Center, call 908-522-6429.

Learn more about the Atlantic Melanoma Center >