Reading view
STAT+: AI Prognosis readers’ predictions for health AI in 2026. What’s on your bingo card?
You’re reading the web edition of STAT’s AI Prognosis newsletter, our subscriber-exclusive guide to artificial intelligence in health care and medicine. Sign up to get it delivered in your inbox every Wednesday.
Hope you had a great holiday season. I’m starting off the year in Las Vegas at the Consumer Electronics Show. So far I’ve seen a 3D printer for chocolate and two different brands of fedora-wearing robots; I’ve also learned that Napster is back (and is really into AI music now). If you’re around, let me know!
Also, if you like a lil game as a treat during the day: STAT’s mini crossword is now daily! Check it out here.
Continue to STAT+ to read the full story…


© STAT/Adobe
Deploying a hybrid approach to Web3 in the AI era
When the concept of “Web 3.0” first emerged about a decade ago the idea was clear: Create a more user-controlled internet that lets you do everything you can now, except without servers or intermediaries to manage the flow of information.
Where Web2, which emerged in the early 2000s, relies on centralized systems to store data and supply compute, all owned—and monetized by—a handful of global conglomerates, Web3 turns that structure on its head. Instead, data and compute are decentralized through technologies like blockchain and peer-to-peer networks.

What was once a futuristic concept is quickly becoming a more concrete reality, even at a time when Web2 still dominates. Six out of ten Fortune 500 companies are exploring blockchain-based solutions, most taking a hybrid approach that combines traditional Web2 business models and infrastructure with the decentralized technologies and principles of Web3.
Popular use cases include cloud services, supply chain management, and, most notably financial services. In fact, at one point, the daily volume of transactions processed on decentralized finance exchanges exceeded $10 billion.
Gaining a Web3 edge
Among the advantages of Web3 for the enterprise are greater ownership and control of sensitive data, says Erman Tjiputra, founder and CEO of the AIOZ Network, which is building infrastructure for Web3, powered by decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN), blockchain-based systems that govern physical infrastructure assets.
More cost-effective compute is another benefit, as is enhanced security and privacy as the cyberattack landscape grows more hostile, he adds. And it could even help protect companies from outages caused by a single point of failure, which can lead to downtime, data loss, and revenue deficits.
But perhaps the most exciting opportunity, says Tjiputra, is the ability to build and scale AI reliably and affordably. By leveraging a people-powered internet infrastructure, companies can far more easily access—and contribute to—shared resource like bandwidth, storage, and processing power to run AI inference, train models, and store data. All while using familiar developer tooling and open, usage-based incentives.
“We’re in a compute crunch where requirements are insatiable, and Web3 creates this ability to benefit while contributing,” explains Tjiputra.
In 2025, AIOZ Network launched a distributed compute platform and marketplace where developers and enterprises can access and monetize AI assets, and run AI inference or training on AIOZ Network’s more than 300,000 contributing devices. The model allows companies to move away from opaque datasets and models and scale flexibly, without centralized lock in.
Overcoming Web3 deployment challenges
Despite the promise, it is still early days for Web3, and core systemic challenges are leaving senior leadership and developers hesitant about its applicability at scale.
One hurdle is a lack of interoperability. The current fragmentation of blockchain networks creates a segregated ecosystem that makes it challenging to transfer assets or data between platforms. This often complicates transactions and introduces new security risks due to the reliance on mechanisms such as cross-chain bridges. These are tools that allow asset transfers between platforms but which have been shown to be vulnerable to targeted attacks.
“We have countless blockchains running on different protocols and consensus models,” says Tjiputra. “These blockchains need to work with each other so applications can communicate regardless of which chain they are on. This makes interoperability fundamental.”
Regulatory uncertainty is also a challenge. Outdated legal frameworks can sit at odds with decentralized infrastructures, especially when it comes to compliance with data protection and anti-money laundering regulations.
“Enterprises care about verifiability and compliance as much as innovation, so we need frameworks where on-chain transparency strengthens accountability instead of adding friction,” Tjiputra says.
And this is compounded by user experience (UX) challenges, says Tjiputra. “The biggest setback in Web3 today is UX,” he says. “For example, in Web2, if I forget my bank username or password, I can still contact the bank, log in and access my assets. The trade-off in Web3 is that, should that key be compromised or lost, we lose access to those assets. So, key recovery is a real problem.”
Building a bridge to Web3
Although such systemic challenges won’t be solved overnight, by leveraging DePIN networks, enterprises can bridge the gap between Web2 and Web3, without making a wholesale switch. This can minimize risk while harnessing much of the potential.
AIOZ Network’s own ecosystem includes capacity for media streaming, AI compute, and distributed storage that can be plugged into an existing Web2 tech stack. “You don’t need to go full Web3,” says Tjiputra. “You can start by plugging distributed storage into your workflow, test it, measure it, and see the benefits firsthand.”
The AIOZ Storage solution, for example, offers scalable distributed object storage by leveraging the global network of contributor devices on AIOZ DePIN. It is also compatible with existing storage systems or commonly used web application programming interfaces (APIs).
“Say we have a programmer or developer who uses Amazon S3 Storage or REST APIs, then all they need to do is just repoint the endpoints,” explains Tjiputra. “That’s it. It’s the same tools, it’s really simple. Even with media, with a single one-stop shop, developers can do transcoding and streaming with a simple REST API.”
Built on Cosmos, a network of hundreds of different blockchains that can communicate with each other, and a standardized framework enabled by Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), AIOZ Network has also prioritized interoperability. “Applications shouldn’t care which chain they’re on. Developers should target APIs without worrying about consensus mechanisms. That’s why we built on Cosmos and EVM—interoperability first.”
This hybrid model, which allows enterprises to use both Web2 and Web3 advantages in tandem, underpins what Tjiputra sees as the longer-term ambition for the much-hyped next iteration of the internet.
“Our vision is a truly peer-to-peer foundation for a people-powered internet, one that minimizes single points of failure through multi-region, multi-operator design,” says Tjiputra. “By distributing compute and storage across contributors, we gain both cost efficiency and end-to-end security by default.
“Ideally, we want to evolve the internet toward a more people-powered model, but we’re not there yet. We’re still at the starting point and growing.”
Indeed, Web3 isn’t quite snapping at the heels of the world’s Web2 giants, but its commercial advantages in an era of AI have become much harder to ignore. And with DePIN bridging the gap, enterprises and developers can step into that potential while keeping one foot on surer ground.
To learn more from AIOZ Network, you can read the AIOZ Network Vision Paper.
This content was produced by Insights, the custom content arm of MIT Technology Review. It was not written by MIT Technology Review’s editorial staff.
This content was researched, designed, and written by human writers, editors, analysts, and illustrators. This includes the writing of surveys and collection of data for surveys. AI tools that may have been used were limited to secondary production processes that passed thorough human review.
Adaptive therapy for perioperative non-small cell lung cancer: strategies guided by dynamic minimal residual disease adjustment
Transl Oncol. 2026 Jan 6;64:102660. doi: 10.1016/j.tranon.2025.102660. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer incidence and mortality worldwide, with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounting for about 85% of cases. The low rate of early diagnosis and the high rate of occult metastases limit the survival benefits of conventional treatments. The current TNM staging system fails to fully reflect tumor heterogeneity or the dynamic molecular evolution of the disease, thus affecting the prediction of recurrence and the prognostic stratification. Some recent advances in minimal residual disease (MRD) detection, such as ultra-sensitive liquid biopsy technologies, have largely overcome the limitations of traditional imaging and offered a transformative approach for continuous, precision-based management of lung cancer. This review systematically summarized the technological evolution of MRD detection and highlighted its clinical significance in guiding adaptive therapy for NSCLC, including treatment escalation, de-escalation, and the emerging concept of precision-guided drug holidays. Moreover, the authors comprehensively discussed the "Four-Dimensional TNMB Staging System," which incorporates continuous molecular monitoring to address the static limitations of conventional staging and enhance the accuracy of prognostic stratification. Although ongoing challenges, such as the lack of standardized interpretation criteria and limited detection sensitivity, the combinations with the third-generation liquid biopsy platforms, multi-omics analyses, and multi-center prospective validation studies are expected to advance the clinical implementation of MRD-guided strategies. The paradigm change will enable the transition of NSCLC management from conventional standardized models to a precision-guided, closed-loop system of "monitoring-intervention-remonitoring," establishing a solid theoretical and practical foundation for comprehensive, molecularly driven management strategies.
PMID:41496417 | DOI:10.1016/j.tranon.2025.102660
A global cancer surge is underway and the world is not ready
The Path Ahead for Agentic AI: Challenges and Opportunities
Causal-Enhanced AI Agents for Medical Research Screening
AI-exposed jobs deteriorated before ChatGPT
PatentMind: A Multi-Aspect Reasoning Graph for Patent Similarity Evaluation
Organoids in translation: a bench-to-bedside framework for pancreatic cancer precision medicine
J Transl Med. 2026 Jan 6. doi: 10.1186/s12967-025-07596-8. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the most lethal malignancies with a 5-year survival rate of < 13%. Standard treatments such as FOLFIRINOX or gemcitabine/nab-paclitaxel yield modest response rates, underscoring the urgent need for precision oncology approaches. Patient-derived organoids (PDOs) preserve the genomic, phenotypic, and histopathological features of the source tumor and offer a promising platform for drug screening, biomarker development, and personalized therapy. However, a systematic evaluation of their translational capacities is lacking.
METHODS: A systematic review was conducted according to the PRISMA 2020 guidelines (PROSPERO registration pending) using PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane CENTRAL (December 10, 2024) to identify English-language PDAC PDO studies that incorporated therapeutic testing. Ninety-five studies met the inclusion criteria. Data extraction captured >75 variables per study, including spanning culture methodology, therapeutic profiling, biomarker integration, and clinical correlation. A 13-domain weighted Translatability Scoring Framework adapted from Wehling et al. assessed predictive validity, biomarker strength, pharmacogenetics, and clinical trial alignment. Scores ranged from 0 to 5 and were categorized as good (>4.0), moderate (3.0-4.0), or low (<3.0) translational potential.
RESULTS: Of the 95 studies, 70.5% have been published since 2021, reflecting the rapid growth in this field. The mean PDO generation success rate was 89.7%, with the primary tumor tissue being the predominant source (48.4%). Only 24.8% were directly linked to clinical trials and 5.3% incorporated multi-omic profiling. The median translatability score was 3.13 (range, 1.72-4.59): 45.3% of the studies had low translatability, 50.5% moderate, and only 4.2% had good translational potential. High-scoring studies consistently combine multi-omic biomarker platforms, in vivo validation, clinical outcome correlation, and prospective trial integration. Conversely, the weakest domains were pharmacogenetics, endpoint strategies, and biomarker validation, limiting their overall clinical relevance.
CONCLUSIONS: PDOs have demonstrated strong feasibility and in vitro clinical correlation in PDAC; however, their clinical translation remains constrained by limited multi-omic integration, absence of pharmacogenomic modeling, and sparse clinical trial embedding. Standardization of protocols, adoption of harmonized and clinically relevant endpoints, and systematic incorporation of biomarker-driven co-clinical trial frameworks are urgently needed to transition PDOs from promising experimental surrogates to validating precision oncology tools capable of informing therapeutic decision-making in PDAC.
PMID:41495743 | DOI:10.1186/s12967-025-07596-8
Wearable health devices could generate a million tons of e-waste by 2050
First In-Ear EEG Device Gets FDA Clearance
(MedPage Today) -- The FDA cleared an electroencephalography (EEG) system based on a small sensor worn in the ear, allowing patients to be monitored outside of hospital settings, Naox Technologies in Paris, announced on Tuesday.
The Naox Link... Establishment and Optimization of a Patient-Reported Outcome–Based Electronic-Diary for Symptoms Evaluation in Patients With Gastroesophageal Reflux Disorder: Prospective Cohort Study
STAT+: FDA announces sweeping changes to oversight of wearables, AI-enabled devices
LAS VEGAS — The Food and Drug Administration announced Tuesday that it will ease regulation of digital health products, following through on the Trump administration’s promises to deregulate artificial intelligence and promote its widespread use.
FDA Commissioner Marty Makary indicated that one of the agency’s priorities is fostering an environment that’s good for investors, and that FDA regulation needs to move “at Silicon Valley speed.” He announced the changes during an address to conference attendees at the Consumer Electronics Show.
The agency will soften its approach to the regulation of clinical decision support software, which include AI-enabled products that help doctors navigate diagnoses and treatment options. The agency previously considered products that delivered a single recommendation as FDA-regulated medical devices. Now, those products can enter the market without FDA review as long as they fulfill the agency’s other criteria for escaping regulation.
Continue to STAT+ to read the full story…


© ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images
California lawmaker proposes a four-year ban on AI chatbots in kids’ toys
The role of PCMT1 in prognosis tumor immune microenvironment and therapeutic responses across cancers
Discov Oncol. 2026 Jan 5. doi: 10.1007/s12672-025-04366-2. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Emerging evidence highlights the overexpression of Protein-L-isoaspartate (D-aspartate) O-methyltransferase (PCMT1) in multiple malignancies. However, its pan-cancer prognostic significance, tumor immune microenvironment (TIME) interactions, and therapeutic implications remain underexplored.
METHODS: Multi-omics data were integrated from UCSC Xena, GTEx, UALCAN, and published cohorts. PCMT1 expression patterns were systematically analyzed across 33 cancer types. Associations between PCMT1 and clinical outcomes, immune infiltration, immune checkpoint genes (ICGs), tumor mutation burden (TMB), microsatellite instability (MSI), and drug sensitivity were evaluated using bioinformatics pipelines.
RESULTS: Our pan-cancer analysis revealed differential expression patterns of PCMT1 across various malignancies, with significant upregulation in 20 cancer types and downregulation in 3 cancer types. Notably, PCMT1 overexpression was predominantly observed in epithelial-origin tumors, such as ACC (adrenocortical carcinoma), BRCA (breast invasive carcinoma), COAD (colon adenocarcinoma), and LUAD (lung adenocarcinoma). Survival analysis demonstrated that elevated PCMT1 expression was significantly correlated with unfavorable prognosis in multiple epithelial tumors, particularly in BRCA, esophageal carcinoma (ESCA), head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSC), liver hepatocellular carcinoma (LIHC), and mesothelioma (MESO). Furthermore, comprehensive analysis identified significant associations between PCMT1 expression and various tumor microenvironment features, including immune scores, six distinct immune cell types, four immunosuppressive cell populations, cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs)-related markers, and immunosuppressive factors. PCMT1 expression also showed significant correlations with tumor mutation burden (TMB), microsatellite instability (MSI), DNA stemness score (DNAss), and RNA stemness score (RNAss). Particularly noteworthy was the strong positive correlation between PCMT1 expression and CAFs infiltration, along with their associated factors. These findings were further validated in independent immunotherapy cohorts, where PCMT1 consistently demonstrated immunosuppressive characteristics.
CONCLUSION: Multi-omics analysis suggests that PCMT1 may serve as a potential prognostic biomarker and a novel immunotherapy target for pan-cancer.
PMID:41491065 | DOI:10.1007/s12672-025-04366-2
PRIME: an interpretable artificial intelligence model based on liquid biopsy improves prediction of progression risk in non-small cell lung cancer
Mil Med Res. 2026 Jan 6;12(1):94. doi: 10.1186/s40779-025-00679-z.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Despite the predictive impact of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) minimal residual disease (MRD), accurate prediction of failure risk after curative-intent treatments for early-stage or localized non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients to guide personalized therapy remains challenging. This study aimed to develop and validate an interpretable artificial intelligence-assisted model using global data resources.
METHODS: Liquid biopsy data, blood-based genomic alterations, clinicopathological features, and survival outcomes of stage I-III NSCLC patients who underwent surgery or definitive chemoradiotherapy were collected from 6 cohorts. PRIME (Progression Risk prediction by Interpretable Machine learning on ctDNA-MRD, Mutations, and clinical-therapeutic features) was trained by 6 machine learning algorithms across 4 cohorts and validated in 2 independent cohorts. Model performance was evaluated by the area under the curve (AUC) and interpreted by SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP). Whole-exome sequencing (WES) or whole-genome sequencing (WGS) of tumor tissue from 430 stage II-III NSCLC patients and RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) data from 1149 subjects, sourced from The Cancer Genome Atlas, were used to validate the prognostic effect of mutations identified in peripheral blood and investigate the underlying mechanisms.
RESULTS: A global dataset encompassing 781 blood samples from 493 patients was analyzed. Clinical stage, pre-treatment ctDNA, post-treatment MRD, blood-based Kelch-like ECH-associated protein 1 (KEAP1), serine/threonine kinase 11 (STK11), and cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 2A (CDKN2A) mutations, and treatment modality were significantly associated with the risk of disease progression and were thereby included in the model training. WES/WGS and RNA-seq confirmed the poor prognostic effect of KEAP1, STK11, and CDKN2A mutations, which were characterized by the suppressive tumor microenvironment and attenuated humoral immunity. The neural network (NN) model exhibited optimal prediction of treatment failure risk in the training (AUC = 0.85, 95% CI 0.81-0.89) and validation sets (AUC = 0.82, 95% CI 0.74-0.89). SHAP analysis indicated that MRD (+0.306), treatment modality (+0.128), and pre-treatment ctDNA (+0.043) ranked in the top 3 contributions. NN-PRIME outperformed single liquid biopsy biomarkers and clinical-therapeutic signatures, and demonstrated consistent robustness across different clinical scenarios. High-risk patients identified by NN-PRIME had poorer prognoses but derived significant benefits from adjuvant therapy after surgery.
CONCLUSIONS: As an interpretable model integrating readily-accessible and crucial clinical-genomic predictors, PRIME achieves enhanced performance, allowing for early outcome prediction, refined risk stratification, and personalized clinical decision-making.
PMID:41491583 | PMC:PMC12771999 | DOI:10.1186/s40779-025-00679-z
STAT+: AI has finally started making drug-like antibodies. When will it revolutionize biopharma?
One day, probably in the next year or two, a company will claim it has put the first artificial-intelligence-designed antibody in the clinic. But the industry is divided on what “AI-designed” really means, and how close we are to the technology truly being able to design a medicine.
What exactly does it mean for an antibody to be designed by AI? There are two schools of thought among the antibody and protein AI researchers STAT interviewed. For some, if a computer designs the basic antibody sequence that scientists later tweak to make a clinical candidate, that counts as “AI-designed.” Others say that to be truly AI-designed, an antibody should be ready to go straight into the clinic from the computer, no further lab work needed — a much higher bar to clear.
In 2025, researchers made it clear that AI can meet the first, easier definition of making an “AI-designed” antibody. But while some startups claim to be making antibodies that are ready to go straight into the clinic, and despite investors shoveling more money into AI-native biotechs at higher valuations compared to traditional biotech startups, even pharma and antibody experts embracing AI find it hard to believe that de novo protein design AI models can meet or beat traditional techniques.
Continue to STAT+ to read the full story…


© Adobe