Transforming Breast Cancer Care with AWS Technology and Innovations

Breast cancer remains one of the most prevalent cancers, affecting millions of women annually. Thanks to advances in early detection and groundbreaking technologies, a breast cancer diagnosis no longer has to evoke feelings of hopelessness.

The latest publication of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), jointly with the World Health Organization (WHO), shows that Breast Cancer is still the most commonly diagnosed cancer and leading cause of cancer death in women in the vast majority of countries. Advancements in early detection, precision medicine, and collaborative care have made significant strides in improving patient outcomes.

However, to realize the true potential of breast care treatment, organizations will need to incorporate technology-driven innovations. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is at the forefront of this transformation, leveraging its vast portfolio of healthcare and genomics services to reshape how breast cancer is diagnosed, treated, and managed.

Through advanced cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), and data interoperability, AWS enables healthcare providers to:

Accelerate breast cancer research
Improve diagnosis and treatment
Ultimately enhance patient care

A suite of technologies, including AWS HealthImaging, AWS HealthOmics, and AWS HealthLake play a pivotal role in modernizing breast cancer care by delivering better insights faster.

The Power of Early Detection with AWS

Early detection is critical to increasing survival rates for breast cancer patients. By integrating AWS HealthImaging with services like Amazon Bedrock and Amazon SageMaker, healthcare providers can deploy and customize AI-driven models for advanced imaging analysis. This comprehensive approach enables faster, more accurate interpretation of mammograms, ultrasounds, MRIs, and PET-CT scans. They help clinicians detect cancer at its earliest and most treatable stages.

Incorporating AI into imaging analysis, like the new solutions offered by Vara, has shown promise in analyzing mammograms for signs of breast cancer, identifying subtle anomalies that might be missed by human eyes. The automation of these workflows accelerates the screening process, helping radiologists and oncologists to make faster and more informed decisions, significantly improving the odds of early intervention and better outcomes.

Scalable infrastructure on AWS makes sure that large datasets from imaging studies can be processed and analyzed in near real time, even as healthcare organizations scale their operations.

Fig 1: A detail from Vara’s AI interface analyzing a mammogram for signs of cancer.

Additionally, AWS supports Life Sciences companies in developing the treatments of the future. For instance, AstraZeneca, a global bio-pharmaceutical company, leveraged AWS to build an efficient and scalable genomics data processing solution. The cloud-based architecture, powered by AWS Lambda, AWS Batch, and Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), enabled AstraZeneca to rapidly process massive genomic datasets. They ran over 51 billion statistical tests in less than 24 hours, and accelerated drug discovery projects by providing genetics insights.

Unveiling the Molecular Landscape with AWS HealthOmics

In the battle against breast cancer, understanding the molecular and genetic profile of each patient’s cancer is critical to providing personalized and effective treatments. AWS HealthOmics offers a robust cloud infrastructure designed to accelerate precision medicine initiatives by processing, analyzing, and managing genomic data at scale.

Researchers and clinicians can analyze the genomic sequences of breast cancer tumors to identify key mutations and genetic variants that drive cancer growth. This molecular-level understanding allows for the development of personalized treatment plans that target specific cancer mutations. It increases the likelihood of treatment success while minimizing harmful side effects.

Research: Streamlining Clinical Trials and Treatment

AWS plays a critical role in modernizing clinical trials for breast cancer therapies. By leveraging generative AI and AI-driven tools, AWS enables healthcare organizations to automate key processes such as patient cohort selection, trial data management, and medical coding. This automation reduces the time and cost associated with clinical trials, allowing pharmaceutical companies and research institutions to bring new treatments to market faster.

For example, GRAIL, a biotechnology company, aimed to shift cancer screening from individual cancers to detecting cancer earlier (including breast cancer) through a single blood test. Using AWS services, GRAIL built a scalable infrastructure to handle massive genomic data and run computational workloads for clinical trials. GRAIL achieved a 40% cost savings on storage, secure data encryption and scalability to support a 140,000-person trial.

AWS-powered solutions enable global researchers to securely share data across institutions through trusted research environments and clean rooms, fostering effective collaboration. Research done in the UKBIOBANK (with a vast medical dataset containing information from 500,000 participants) has been made accessible to global researchers through a secure, cloud-based platform hosted on AWS. This enables analysis of the 30+ petabyte dataset, including whole-genome sequences to drive discoveries for new treatments and cures worldwide.

Precision Medicine: Tailoring Treatment with AWS

Precision medicine is the future of cancer care, and AWS is helping healthcare providers make this vision a reality by helping clinicians to surface insights that inform individualized treatment plans. AWS HealthLake, a HIPAA-eligible service, provides a unified platform for storing and analyzing patient data, including clinical records, genomic data, and imaging studies. Clinicians can view a comprehensive, longitudinal view of each patient’s medical history, making it straightforward to tailor treatment plans to the unique genetic and clinical characteristics of their breast cancer.

Amazon SageMaker allows clinicians and researchers to build, train, and deploy machine learning models that predict treatment outcomes based on individual patient data. These models can help oncologists recommend therapies that are most likely to be effective for a specific patient based on factors such as tumor genetics, clinical history, and even previous treatment responses.

Generative AI solutions from AWS enable healthcare organizations to perform complex tasks such as analyzing genomic data to identifying potential drug targets. They also generate insights for clinical trial cohort selection. AWS supports the integration of AI for lesion detection in biopsy samples, aiding pathologists in identifying subtle patterns and anomalies in the tissue samples, which plays a critical role in personalizing treatment options.

Battling Breast Cancer with Collaboration Powered by AWS

Cancer care is rarely a solo effort—it involves a multidisciplinary team of specialists, from oncologists and radiologists to surgeons and geneticists. AWS supports this collaborative care approach by offering solutions that enhance communication, coordination, and data sharing among healthcare providers.

For example, AWS enables tumor board solutions, where multidisciplinary teams can collaborate seamlessly through secure data-sharing platforms. Clinicians can access and share images, pathology reports, and genomic data in near real time, enabling all team members to have the most up-to-date information when discussing treatment plans.

To empower patients, AWS offers solutions that power chatbots and virtual assistants, helping patients and their families to remain engaged in their care. Patients can use these tools to access near real-time information about their treatment, schedule follow-up appointments, and communicate with their care teams, all from the convenience of their homes.

Conclusion

AWS is revolutionizing breast cancer care by providing a comprehensive suite of technologies that enhance early detection, precision medicine, and ultimately better outcomes for patients. From AWS HealthOmics to AWS HealthLake and generative AI-driven clinical solutions, AWS empowers healthcare providers to deliver faster, more personalized, and more effective treatments for breast cancer patients.

As the healthcare industry continues to innovate, AWS stands as a trusted partner in the fight against breast cancer, offering the tools and expertise needed to drive meaningful change. Learn more about these revolutionary technologies.

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