Integrating Artificial Intelligence in Multidisciplinary Tumor Boards: A Scoping Review of its Impact and Potential

Multidisciplinary Tumor Boards (MDTs) are meetings where experts get together to decide what the best treatment for cancer patients is. But we could make even better treatment decisions by adding Artificial Intelligence (AI) to these teams. In this review, we examine how AI can contribute to selecting the appropriate treatments for MDTs. While there is still some work to be done, AI has certainly already shown that it can help us better diagnose and treat cancer. It reviewed 22 studies from 2016 to 2024 that looked at how often AI’s suggestions matched with what MDTs decided. In most cases, AI and MDT agreed, and rates of concordance ranged from 48.9 to 99.1 percent, mostly 72 to 87 percent. Concordance rates in the other studies were somewhat lower, but were not that significantly different from ours. In at least one study, agreement varied based on patient age, possible treatment side effects or lack of financial resources. AI, although a few hurdles, is proving to be an invaluable tool for MDTs. Yet in order to make it work in more rapid and more precise fashion, we need to keep working at improving the technology, to get doctors comfortable with how to use it, and to scrub out the same legal and access barriers that we've always had with other forms of commerce that have been somewhat slower to come to medicine.