The MRI shows a brain tumor in an inauspicious location, and a brain biopsy will entail high risks for a patient who had consulted doctors due to double vision. Situations such as this case prompted researchers at Charité—Universitätsmedizin Berlin to look for new diagnostic procedures. The result is an AI model.

The model makes use of specific characteristics in the genetic material of tumors—their epigenetic fingerprint, obtained for example from cerebrospinal fluid, among other things. As the team shows in the journal Nature Cancer, the new model classifies tumors quickly and very reliably.

Today, far more types of tumors are known than the organs from which they arise. Each tumor has its own characteristics: certain tissue features, growth rates and metabolic peculiarities. Nevertheless, tumor types with similar molecular characteristics can be grouped together. The treatment of the individual disease depends decisively on the type of tumor.