A new artificial intelligence (AI) test could revolutionise prostate cancer treatment by identifying which men are most likely to benefit from abiraterone—a life-extending drug that halves the risk of death in certain patients. 

Abiraterone has already helped hundreds of thousands of men with advanced prostate cancer. However, access remains limited in places like England for men whose cancer has not yet spread. That could soon change, thanks to an exciting development from a team of researchers in the US, UK, and Switzerland. 

The AI tool, funded by Prostate Cancer UK and other research bodies, analyses tumour biopsy images to detect features invisible to the human eye. It can predict with remarkable accuracy which patients will respond best to abiraterone. In a trial involving over 1,000 men with high-risk but non-metastatic prostate cancer, the test identified 25% of patients as "biomarker-positive"—the group for whom the drug cuts the five-year death risk from 17% to just 9%. 

For the remaining 75%, standard hormone therapy and radiotherapy were just as effective, meaning they could avoid the side effects and monitoring that come with abiraterone. 

Experts are now urging NHS England to reconsider its stance and make abiraterone available to high-risk patients with non-metastatic disease. Given its relatively low cost and the ability to target treatment precisely, the hope is that this AI test will help save more lives while avoiding unnecessary medication. 

Read the full article here – https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/may/30/new-ai-test-can-predict-which-men-will-benefit-from-prostate-cancer-drug