Jun 2026· Journal of Translational Medicine· Vol 24· 0 citations· 109 references
Medicine
TL;DR
This review provides a comprehensive pipeline for artificial intelligence/machine learning in cancer research, including preclinical research, clinical decision support, and real-world implementation, and critically examines multi-omics fusion architectures, regularization-based machine learning, batch-effect harmonization, explainable AI, and federated learning.
Abstract
Cancer is a complex and heterogeneous disease that is characterized by multi-level biological variability. Advances in high-throughput technologies have led to large-scale, high-dimensional data sets in cancer research, creating a pressing need for powerful computational techniques for successful data analysis. Current techniques may be inadequate for this purpose, thus underscoring the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) for successful data analysis. This review provides a comprehensive pipeline for artificial intelligence/machine learning in cancer research, including preclinical research, clinical decision support, and real-world implementation. It emphasizes several important technologies, data integration, and implementation challenges. The review critically examines multi-omics fusion architectures, regularization-based machine learning, batch-effect harmonization, explainable AI, and federated learning, while addressing translational barriers including algorithmic bias, covariate drift, and regulatory asynchrony across Indian, US, and EU frameworks. Anchored by Decision Curve Analysis as a clinical utility benchmark, this narrative framework establishes that meaningful progress in precision oncology, early detection, and patient outcomes demands not only predictive accuracy but also externally validated, population-representative, and governance-compliant AI systems capable of sustained real-world oncology impact.
Machine learning (ML) is transforming cancer research and care by enabling analysis of complex, high-dimensional datasets spanning genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, imaging, and clinical records. By improving risk stratification, accelerating detection and diagnosis, and supporting treatment selection, ML has the potential to enhance survival outcomes while increasing efficiency across oncology workflows. This review synthesizes key developments in ML for oncology, covering foundational algorithms alongside emerging approaches. We highlight major application areas including early cancer detection, tumor classification, molecular subtyping, biomarker discovery, prognosis estimation, multi-omics integration, computational pathology, pharmacogenomics, and clinical decision support. We also summarize commonly used datasets, discuss the importance of interpretability for clinical trust, and outline barriers to translation such as data heterogeneity, bias, and regulatory constraints. Finally, we describe future directions, including federated learning, graph neural networks, longitudinal modeling, and integration of real-world and wearable data to support precision oncology. This review is intended for cancer researchers, clinicians, and data scientists seeking a practical overview of ML methods, opportunities, and translational considerations in oncology.
Kanishk Yadav, Taneesha Gupta· Journal of the Egyptian Nati...· 0 citations
Metastatic cancer remains a leading cause of global mortality, yet accurate prognosis is frequently hampered by high-dimensional molecular features and heterogeneous clinical presentations. While traditional staging systems and linear models provide a foundational risk assessment, they often fail to capture the complex, nonlinear interactions between metastatic topology, genomic burden, and functional sequence variation. To address this, recent advances in machine learning and genomic foundation models present a transformative opportunity to integrate diverse data types into an explainable predictive framework. Consequently, this research developed a multi-tier, explainable AI framework designed to risk-stratify patients and predict overall survival using clinical and genomic covariates. Additionally, the framework aimed to surface sequence-level disease drivers by implementing joint variant calling from RNA-seq data and leveraging transformer-based architectures. The study employed a two-track methodological approach encompassing populationscale modeling and sequence-level deep learning. For the population-scale aim, a retrospective analysis was conducted on the Memorial Sloan Kettering-Metastatic cohort, consisting of 25,775 patients. Five distinct classifiers XGBoost, Logistic Regression, Random Forest, Decision Tree, and Naive Bayes were trained on a balanced subset of 20,338 patients utilizing an 80/20 stratified split. Model explainability was established through Shapley Additive Explanations (SHAP), while survival dynamics were evaluated using Kaplan-Meier estimates, Cox proportional hazards models, and an XGBoost-Cox variant. Concurrently, a pilot study involving 60 individuals, comprising 30 breast cancer cases and 30 controls, investigated sequence-level drivers using RNAseq data. A joint variant calling pipeline generated a unified genomic variant call format for association testing, and three genomic foundation models DNABERT-2, HyenaDNA, and Nucleotide Transformer were fine-tuned for 50 epochs on variantcentered windows spanning 100 base pairs in either direction to classify case versus control status. The results revealed stark contrasts in performance between the clinical and genomic modeling tracks. In survivability predictions, XGBoost emerged as the superior classifier, achieving an accuracy of 0.74 and an AUC of 0.82, while the XGBoost-Cox model outperformed the traditional Cox model with a C-index of 0.70 compared to 0.66. Through explainability and hazard-based analyses, metastatic site count, tumor mutational burden, the fraction of the genome altered, and the presence of liver and bone metastases were identified as the most potent prognostic indicators across pan-cancer and cancer-specific models. Conversely, the sequence-level transformer models exhibited severe overfitting, with test performance remaining near stochastic levels between 49 percent and 51 percent accuracy. Although DNABERT-2 achieved the highest nominal accuracy at 50.63 percent and HyenaDNA showed superior computational efficiency, the pilot ultimately indicated that fine-tuning transformers on raw sequences in small cohorts is heavily limited by a high signal-to-noise ratio and the polygenic complexity of cancer. Ultimately, this research demonstrates that explainable machine learning models can robustly predict survivability and highlight actionable features for oncology dashboards. However, future sequence-level deep learning efforts must pivot toward using frozen transformer embEd. D.ings or larger, multi-center cohorts to ensure equitable and generalizable clinical adoption.
This review highlights the synergy between AI and HTS, emphasizing DL techniques such as convolutional neural networks for bioactivity prediction, recurrent neural networks for de novo design, and reinforcement learning for property optimization.
K. Herbetko, Katarzyna Herbetko, Magdalena Mikołajek et al.· Future Medicinal Chemistry· 0 citations
Recent literature on the application of artificial intelligence (AI) and data science within bioinformatics-driven cancer drug discovery is synthesized, examining how these tools are reshaping target identification, molecular design, biomarker discovery, and treatment personalization.
Yejide Eniola Dabiri· Magna Scientia Advanced Rese...· 0 citations
A clinically oriented, pipeline-based synthesis of contemporary AI applications in genomic medicine, focusing on factors that determine model robustness and clinical utility, and common sources of failure in real-world genomic AI systems.
Alexandra-Maria Blaga, Răzvan-Octavian Mihuț, A. Treteanu et al.· International Journal of Mol...· 0 citations
The discussion on precision oncology integrates multiomics technologies and artificial intelligence, specifically addressing biomarker discovery and personalized therapeutic strategies. In this way, clinical translation and multiomics biomarkers are reconstructed challenges such as heterogeneity, validate, algorithmic bias, regulatory complexities, and ethical issues. This review critically evaluates how advanced technologies operating in an integrated manner facilitate precision oncology by supporting fields such as genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and radiomics. To conduct the study, we performed literature search using standard databases such as PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus, focusing on papers published between 2020 and 2025. We address the all aspects of biomarker identification and clinical applications; we employed a five-stage framework comprising multiparametric data generation, integration, biomarker discovery, rigorous validation, and regulatory implementation. To further examine this review, we have employed emerging computational approaches, including machine learning and deep learning and graph neural networks alongside regulatory frameworks and ethical, legal, and social considerations. Discussing translation barriers, we consider factors such as limited reproducibility, validation, and critical discussion particularly studies. Ultimately, a future model based on standardized, validated, and transparent learning strategies accelerates and fosters the development of clinically reliable standards. Our review provides an integrative roadmap for modern, multiomics-driven biomarker approaches in precision oncology practice.
Ujwal Havelikar, Atharva A. Shinde, Hrushikesh Mhaismale et al.· Omics· 0 citations