Researchers at the Cheriton School of Computer Science have applied machine learning to identify tumor-specific antigens, which could help make personalized cancer vaccines practically feasible and more accurate.

In cancer, when a mutation occurs in a cell's DNA, a substitution takes place. This substitution is flagged as an invader by our immune system and is referred to as a neoantigen, a mutated peptide that appears on the surface of cancer cells.

"If we can figure out what the neoantigens are on cancer cells, they can be used to develop a cancer vaccine—a vaccine that's personalized to the cancer patient and which uses the patient's own immune system to attack the tumor," explains Hieu Tran, adjunct professor at the Cheriton School of Computer Science.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-04-personalizing-cancer-treatment-machine.html