Future directions in brain cancer care: artificial intelligence, precision medicine, and African contributions

Brain cancer is a devastating disease that affects millions of people worldwide. The current state of brain cancer care is characterized by complex treatments and limited success rates. This chapter explores the future of brain cancer care, focusing on emerging artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, advancements in precision medicine, and their potential impact on the field. AI is increasingly being recognized as a pivotal element in advancing precision medicine, in the context of brain tumor diagnosis, treatment, and research. The integration of AI with precision medicine offers the potential to revolutionize the diagnosis, prognosis, and therapeutic strategies for brain tumors, such as gliomas and glioblastoma (GBM), which are among the most challenging malignancies to treat. The future direction of AI in this field is likely to focus on the development of more sophisticated machine learning models that can integrate multimodal data, including genomic, imaging, pathology, and clinical information, to facilitate personalized treatment plans. African contributions to this domain are poised to grow given the increasing recognition of the need for diverse genomic data to improve the accuracy and applicability of AI models across different populations. This chapter emphasizes the role of African researchers and institutions in shaping future directions.