How Curenetics AI technology can help improve cancer care in Africa
By Ojoma Akor
Dr Olusola Adeleke is the Chief Executive Officer and founder of Curenetics, a cancer care campaign that aims to help improve cancer patient survival using Artificial Intelligence (AI).
He practiced medicine in Nigeria until 2010 before moving abroad. He has over 12 years’ experience in cancer care research within hospital care systems in the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS).
In this interview, he discusses the need for accessible, effective cancer technologies in Nigeria, his cancer campaign, and other topics.
What is your assessment of the cancer burden in Nigeria, and the continent as a whole?
Africa’s young population is at an increasing risk of developing cancer as lifestyles change with age and wealth. Many advanced-stage cancer patients travel abroad to South Africa or Europe for care, but Nigeria needs accessible, effective local technologies.
What inspired your research project at Curenetics, and what challenges does it aim to address?
At Curenetics, we are developing two key products – one to improve the accuracy of predicting responses to cancer care treatment or immunotherapy, and another using RNA-based technology for diagnosis of oral cavity cancer (cancer of the mouth).
Curenetics was inspired by the fact that the current approach to immunotherapy as a cancer treatment is not delivering the best patient outcomes – although immunotherapy can be very effective, it is expensive, doesn’t work for everyone, and can come with significant side effects. We are driven by the need to help patients avoid ineffective, costly, and harmful treatments by predicting response in advance with high accuracy.
We apply our understanding of oncology, cancer biology, and AI to analyze patient clinical data and predict whether they will respond to treatment.
How will the deployment of your technology improve outcomes for cancer patients?
Our technology will help determine with high accuracy whether a patient will respond to treatment before starting it, preventing unnecessary costs and side effects.
How will it benefit cancer care in Nigeria and the continent?
As treatment is not cheap, people must pay out of pocket in Africa, and it can also make people sick. With our technology, we could play a major role in improving health outcomes in Africa by providing locally accessible tools to guide cancer treatment decisions and reduce the need for expensive overseas care. Nigeria has a large population, and we could leverage this data to validate our AI Algorithm and plan better AI models.
What is the status of its acceptability and use in the United Kingdom and other countries?
Our AI technology has been tested across several UK hospitals. In retrospective studies, we compared our platform technology with clinical practice results and accurately predicted patient diagnoses, with results better than standard practice.
What is your plan for Africa’s health system through your program?
We believe our technology could play a key role in improving healthcare access. We are willing to work with African academia, researchers, and policymakers to understand the challenges, problems, and pain points Africans face. There is a significant opportunity to leverage Africa’s large population data to plan better AI models and validate our AI algorithm.
Generally, how do you think artificial intelligence helps the healthcare system?
AI offers significant opportunities for the healthcare system, including its ability to guide better care. AI regulation is still catching up with its rapid growth and the opportunities it brings.
