IBM’s Watson to guide cancer therapies at 14 centers
(This version of the story has been refiled to correct name of USC unit participating in program, in the 12th paragraph) By Sharon Begley NEW YORK (Reuters) – Fourteen U.S. and Canadian cancer institutes will use International Business Machines Corp's Watson computer system to choose therapies based on a tumor's genetic fingerprints, the company said on Tuesday, the latest step toward bringing personalized cancer treatments to more patients. Oncology is the first specialty where matching therapy to DNA has improved outcomes for some patients, inspiring the "precision medicine initiative" President Barack Obama announced in January. Watson can do it in minutes and has in its database the findings of scientific papers and clinical trials on particular cancers and potential therapies. Faced with such a data deluge, "the solution is going to be Watson or something like it," said oncologist Norman Sharpless of the University of North Carolina Lineberger Cancer Center.
