Kid Scientist Can Treat Cancer

Pancreatic cancer is a dangerous disease that happens due to smoking and health history. Signs and symptoms of pancreatic cancer include jaundice, pain, and weight loss. Pancreatic cancer is difficult to detect (find) and diagnose early. The risk of developing pancreatic cancer goes up as with age and is most common amongst patients older than 45 years of age.

About two-thirds suffering with pancreatic cancer are at least 65 years old. According to the American Cancer Society, for all stages of pancreatic cancer combined, the one-year relative survival rate is 20%, and the five-year rate is 7%. 13 year old Rishab Jain, 8th grade student, from Portland, Oregon created an artificial intelligence-based tool called PCDLS Net to improve pancreas tracking during a treatment called radiotherapy for pancreatic cancer. When he came to know about the low survival rate of pancreatic cancer while he got engaged in some research in Boston, he began his research. With the magic of his programming skills and artificial intelligence, he created an artificial intelligence-based tool called PCDLS Net to improve pancreas tracking during a treatment called radiotherapy for pancreatic cancer. He contacted over 253 doctors, and got around 30 replies from leading experts from institutions at cancer centers and around the world. Pancreas position in the body is tricky to find. This created a real time problem for radiologists and oncologists to find the pancreas and apply radiation treatment. But, fortunately with his hard work, Rishab’s tool can be run to find where exactly the pancreas is in one of these CT or MRI slices and output this result instantaneously. Currently, doctors apply a seven-millimeter overlay around the pancreas of radiation to find out the exact position which can affect millions of healthy cells also whereby his tool is able to reduce that area to around four millimeters, so that saves millions of healthy cells and can improve patient quality of care. Not only this but has a detailed five-year plan to globally commercialize my tool, PCDLS Net, and improve pancreatic cancer survival rates. He plans to collaborate with a hospital to work and create my tool after conducting clinical testing, post all required FDA and IRB approvals. To achieve this, he plans to continue pursuing medicine and engineering and become a biomedical engineer to bring a change I want to make a difference in other people's lives. He created a miracle by combining his knowledge. Rishab Jain won the 2018 Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge and has been awarded prize money of $25,000.

By: Anuja Arora

Content: http://uk.businessinsider.com/cancer-13-year-old-teen-invented-treatment-award-pancreatic-2018-10?r=US&IR=T