AI Tumor Board

Artificial intelligence for better decisions in cancer treatment

Goal: to develop an AI-supported dashboard that supports personalized treatment decisions in tumor boards

In recent years, advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have opened up enormous opportunities to transform healthcare. A particularly promising project in this field is the “AI Tumor Board,” led by experts from University Hospital Zurich (USZ), University Children’s Hospital Zurich (Kispi), and the University of Zurich (UZH). The project aims to create an AI-supported platform that provides oncologists with key information for making personalized treatment decisions for cancer patients. By drawing on medical guidelines and routinely collected clinical data, the AI Tumor Board offers a new way to analyze patient data and predict the most effective treatments.

Selected Research Results

In 2025, a key milestone was reached: a language model developed specifically for oncology can automatically convert unstructured clinical data from reports and free text into a clear, standardized format. This includes diagnoses, tumor stages (TNM stages according to the internationally established system for describing the extent and severity of solid tumors), treatments, and treatment response. It thus lays an important foundation for the AI-supported analysis of patient data.

The performance of this approach was validated using a comprehensive oncology dataset from University Hospital Zurich (USZ) with data from 2,049 patients as well as international comparison data, and was published in the journal Scientific Reports.

Significance for Zurich as a Research Hub

The AI Tumor Board combines clinical expertise with state-of-the-art AI research. By integrating established guidelines with real-world patient data, it creates evidence-based decision support that can set new standards in cancer care.

The project thus makes a significant contribution to the digitalization of cancer medicine and to the implementation of personalized therapies in Zurich as a research hub.

Oncology