Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States, but advances in early detection and treatment are improving the outlook for patients. Over the past two decades, five-year survival rates have nearly doubled, rising from 15% to 27% – progress driven in large part by clinical research. This Lung Cancer Awareness Month, the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology is highlighting how its research is advancing earlier detection, improving treatments, and enhancing quality of life for survivors.

Researchers investigated how quantum computing could improve machine learning when healthcare data are limited. Testing five computing frameworks, the team found that a quantum support vector machine using D-Wave Quantum Inc. technology achieved up to 94.31% accuracy in predicting lung cancer from symptoms and risk factors. The findings demonstrate the potential of quantum machine learning for healthcare applications, while representing preliminary results that require further validation before clinical use.