AI Tools for Oncologists: Where to Begin

Oncology is built on words. You break difficult news. You explain complex treatment plans to people who are frightened. You write letters that families read and re-read at home, trying to understand what comes next. Every word carries weight.

AI tools will not change that. What they can do is help with the volume of writing that surrounds it.

Here are three things oncologists use AI tools for each week.

Drafting patient-facing treatment summaries. After a multidisciplinary team (MDT) meeting, you often need to write to a patient explaining a complex decision in plain language. An AI tool can produce a clear first draft from a set of bullet points. You review it, adjust the tone for this particular patient, and send it. The thinking is yours. The drafting is faster.

Preparing side-effect information sheets. Patients starting a new treatment need to know what to expect. An AI tool can draft a readable guide to the likely side effects of a treatment category — written calmly, without alarming language — that you review and adapt for your patient. You check it against current guidance. It saves you forty-five minutes.

Summarising long case histories before a complex review. When you are preparing for a case involving multiple prior lines of treatment and referrals from several centres, an AI tool can help you organise an anonymised bullet-point summary into a structured clinical briefing — quickly, before you walk into the room.

Where to start

Begin with the tutorial Drafting Your First Patient Treatment Summary Letter. It walks you through a real session with an AI tool, from opening the tool to reviewing a finished draft.

Remember: AI is a helpful assistant, not a clinician. You make the call.