In the field of oncology, Artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning (DL) are an essential component of decision-support. However, traditional narrow-AI models have significant limitations in clinics with respect to narrow, task-specificity (TS), high data requirement and interpretability. Moreover, the absence of common clinical criteria and the lack of doctors in the co-development of explainable AI (XAI) have undermined the implementation causing conflict with general data protection regulation (GDPR), trust and ethical integration requirements. The application of AI/DL tools in clinics are often constrained by TS, heavy dependency on hyperparameter tuning and large data volume. This review fills in these gaps by creating a cohesive framework that links problem-driven clinical demands with emerging technologies, specifically, the convergence of Generalist Medical AI (GMAI) and Quantum Oncology (QO). Although GMAI's use foundation models, have high computational requirements and have inherent complexity in their validation pipelines, they are designed to be based on self-supervised learning from multimodal data to address a range of downstream clinical tasks. This review aims to critically discuss the potential of quantum computing (QC) to augment GMAI for more efficient data processing, medical imaging, drug discovery, and genomic analysis, owing to the inherent strengths of quantum superposition and entanglement that surpass the capabilities of classical AI/DL systems. Structural and technical trade-offs of this paradigm change are also discussed. We also give recommendations for safe bedside translation by facilitating a common assessment through clinician in the loop design, the CLAIM checklist, and the framework FUTURE-AI. Finally, this analysis outlines oncology and quantum convergence into quantum oncology (QO). This enables scalable, sustainable, and precision oncology while respecting ethics and privacy.
In the field of oncology, Artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning (DL) are an essential component of decision-support. However, traditional narrow-AI models have significant limitations in clinics with respect to narrow, task-specificity (TS), high data requirement and interpretability. Moreover, the absence of common clinical criteria and the lack of doctors in the co-development of explainable AI (XAI) have undermined the implementation causing conflict with general data protection regulation (GDPR), trust and ethical integration requirements. The application of AI/DL tools in clinics are often constrained by TS, heavy dependency on hyperparameter tuning and large data volume. This review fills in these gaps by creating a cohesive framework that links problem-driven clinical demands with emerging technologies, specifically, the convergence of Generalist Medical AI (GMAI) and Quantum Oncology (QO). Although GMAI's use foundation models, have high computational requirements and have inherent complexity in their validation pipelines, they are designed to be based on self-supervised learning from multimodal data to address a range of downstream clinical tasks. This review aims to critically discuss the potential of quantum computing (QC) to augment GMAI for more efficient data processing, medical imaging, drug discovery, and genomic analysis, owing to the inherent strengths of quantum superposition and entanglement that surpass the capabilities of classical AI/DL systems. Structural and technical trade-offs of this paradigm change are also discussed. We also give recommendations for safe bedside translation by facilitating a common assessment through clinician in the loop design, the CLAIM checklist, and the framework FUTURE-AI. Finally, this analysis outlines oncology and quantum convergence into quantum oncology (QO). This enables scalable, sustainable, and precision oncology while respecting ethics and privacy.
Cancer remains a major global health challenge, necessitating the development of accurate, scalable, and clinically reliable diagnostic approaches. Artificial intelligence (AI) has significantly enhanced cancer detection through advanced analysis of medical imaging, histopathology, and multi-omics data. However, conventional AI models face limitations related to computational scalability, optimization complexity, and data heterogeneity. Quantum computing introduces a fundamentally different computational paradigm based on superposition, entanglement, and probabilistic state evolution. The integration of quantum computing with machine learning referred to as Quantum Artificial Intelligence (QAI) has emerged as a promising approach to address these challenges. This review critically evaluates the role of QAI in cancer detection through a systematic analysis of literature published between 2015 and 2026. The findings suggest that QAI can enhance feature representation, accelerate optimization processes, and improve predictive performance. Hybrid quantum-classical models show potential in tumor classification, multi-omics integration, and real-time clinical decision-making. Despite these advances, significant challenges remain, including hardware limitations, lack of large-scale validation, and ethical concerns. Overall, QAI represents a promising yet emerging paradigm with potential to transform early cancer detection and precision oncology. This review uniquely synthesizes quantum-AI approaches in oncology, emphasizing hybrid quantum-classical models as the most practical translational pathway for clinical adoption.
Abstract Quantum computing and artificial intelligence (AI) are converging to reshape the future of healthcare. Modern medicine generates vast and complex datasets from imaging, genomics, wearable sensors, and real-time clinical records. While AI has already demonstrated significant potential in diagnostics, drug discovery, and personalised medicine, its progress is often constrained by high computational demand, limited interpretability, and energy inefficiency. Quantum computing offers a fundamentally different paradigm, using qubits, superposition, and entanglement to process high-dimensional data and explore solution spaces in parallel. This synergy-quantum-enhanced AI or quantum machine learning (QML)promises transformative capabilities across the healthcare continuum. This narrative review explores the foundations of quantum computing, the evolution of AI in medicine, and the points where these technologies intersect. Applications span a range of biomedical domains. In radiology and pathology, quantum-assisted classifiers can enhance both the speed and interpretability of image analysis. In drug discovery and genomics, variational quantum eigensolvers and hybrid quantum–classical models may accelerate molecular simulations and genome-wide association studies. In personalized medicine, quantum kernel methods enable more precise phenotype clustering and improve the accuracy of treatment response predictions. Operationally, quantum-AI integration also supports hospital logistics, ICU resource allocation, and supply-chain resilience. Despite these opportunities, significant challenges remain, including hardware limitations, data encoding bottlenecks, interpretability deficits, and regulatory ambiguity. Ethical concerns around privacy, equity, and compliance with frameworks such as HIPAA and GDPR must also be addressed. By mapping opportunities and risks, this review underscores that quantum-AI is no longer speculative but an emerging reality. Harnessing its potential requires multidisciplinary collaboration to translate qubits and algorithms into tangible improvements in patient outcomes, clinical trust, and system efficiency.
The integration of Artificial intelligence (AI) and Quantum computing (QC) is redefining the future of pharmaceutical research and development.While AI-particularly Machine learning (ML) and deep learning-accelerates target identification, virtual screening, and de novo drug design, it often suffers from interpretability issues, data bias, and limited mechanistic understanding.Conversely, QC leverages quantum mechanics to achieve unprecedented accuracy in molecular simulations, yet remains restricted by noise, limited qubits in the Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) era, and high costs.Emerging hybrid quantum-classical algorithms and Quantum Machine Learning (QML) approaches bridge these gaps, enabling high-fidelity in silico drug discovery workflows.Despite these advances, the regulatory environment has not kept pace.Current frameworks, such as Physiologically Based Pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modelling and Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship (QSAR) models, provide limited guidance for validating complex AI-QC systems.Challenges include the lack of explainable artificial intelligence (XAI), uncertainty in verifying quantum outputs, data integrity, and accountability in hybrid pipelines.These gaps highlight the urgent need for regulatory science to adopt dynamic validation frameworks, algorithmic audits, and international harmonization.This review critically examines the technological and regulatory dimensions of AI-QC synergy in drug discovery, outlining key applications, limitations, and ethical considerations.We propose pathways for explainability-by-design, continuous learning oversight, and regulatory sandboxes to facilitate safe and effective adoption.The synergy of AI and QC offers the potential to accelerate timelines, reduce costs, and deliver precision medicines globally-but its promise can only be realized through proactive, transparent, and ethical governance.
The convergence of quantum computing and artificial intelligence (AI) presents a paradigm shift in healthcare, revolutionizing complex biological simulations, genomic data processing, and drug discovery innovations. Traditional computational methods, despite their advancements, often struggle with the sheer scale and complexity of biological data, limiting the speed and accuracy of medical breakthroughs. Quantum computing, with its ability to process vast datasets exponentially faster than classical computers, coupled with AI's predictive capabilities, offers a transformative solution for accelerating biomedical research and clinical applications. This paper explores quantum machine learning’s role in optimizing AI-driven molecular dynamics simulations for drug discovery. By leveraging quantum-enhanced algorithms, researchers can rapidly model molecular interactions, analyze drug-receptor binding affinities, and predict pharmacokinetics with unprecedented precision. Additionally, we examine quantum-assisted deep learning models for deciphering intricate biological mechanisms such as protein folding, epigenetic modifications, and metabolic pathway interactions, enabling more accurate predictions of disease progression and therapeutic targets. Furthermore, the integration of AI-quantum hybrid models in clinical diagnostics and imaging analytics is redefining personalized medicine. Quantum-enhanced deep learning facilitates high-resolution medical imaging, real-time anomaly detection, and optimized radiomic feature extraction, leading to early and more accurate disease diagnosis. In genomics, quantum computing significantly accelerates whole-genome sequencing and mutation analysis, paving the way for tailored treatment strategies based on an individual's genetic profile. Despite its promise, challenges such as quantum hardware limitations, data coherence issues, and ethical considerations must be addressed to ensure the practical implementation of quantum-AI healthcare solutions. This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the potential, challenges, and future directions of quantum-AI synergy in transforming modern healthcare.
The convergence of quantum computing and artificial intelligence (AI) presents a paradigm shift in healthcare, revolutionizing complex biological simulations, genomic data processing, and drug discovery innovations. Traditional computational methods, despite their advancements, often struggle with the sheer scale and complexity of biological data, limiting the speed and accuracy of medical breakthroughs. Quantum computing, with its ability to process vast datasets exponentially faster than classical computers, coupled with AI\\\'s predictive capabilities, offers a transformative solution for accelerating biomedical research and clinical applications. This paper explores quantum machine learning's role in optimizing AI-driven molecular dynamics simulations for drug discovery. By leveraging quantum-enhanced algorithms, researchers can rapidly model molecular interactions, analyze drug- receptor binding affinities, and predict pharmacokinetics with unprecedented precision. Additionally, we examine quantum-assisted deep learning models for deciphering intricate biological mechanisms such as protein folding, epigenetic modifications, and metabolic pathway interactions, enabling more accurate predictions of disease progression and therapeutic targets. Furthermore, the integration of AI-quantum hybrid models in clinical diagnostics and imaging analytics is redefining personalized medicine. Quantum-enhanced deep learning facilitates high-resolution medical imaging, real-time anomaly detection, and optimized radiomic feature extraction, leading to early and more accurate disease diagnosis. In genomics, quantum computing significantly accelerates whole-genome sequencing and mutation analysis, paving the way for tailored treatment strategies based on an individual\\\'s genetic profile. Despite its promise, challenges such as quantum hardware limitations, data coherence issues, and ethical considerations must be addressed to ensure the practical implementation of quantum-AI healthcare solutions.
Background Artificial Intelligence (AI) incorporation within healthcare applications has significantly helped in the improvement of healthcare diagnostics, patient forecasting, and clinical decision-making. The steady growing of medical data in terms of quantity, quality, and dimension poses more significant problems for traditional AI methods in terms of size, time, and computational efficiency. However, classical machine learning models often struggle with high-dimensional, imbalanced, and heterogeneous medical datasets, which limits their scalability and generalizability. The Quantum Artificial Intelligence (QAI) model, which combines quantum computing and machine learning in a complementary way, has emerged as one of the main trends to defeat these problems. This complementary approach is gaining more popularity, with the most advanced work being developed in this area, as it offers a fundamental explanation of current complexities and the underlying principles and their applications. Methodology This paper begins with the basic concepts of quantum computing and where it overlaps with AI. It then moves to a comparative approach, discussing various quantum machine learning algorithms such as quantum support vector machines, quantum neural networks, and variational quantum circuits. A comparative evaluation of quantum support vector machine, variational quantum classifier, quantum neural network, quantum K-means, and quantum Boltzmann machine is conducted using the Pima Indians Diabetes dataset to assess model behaviour and performance under standard metrics. Further detail is provided on the theoretical and practical implications of QAI in medical imaging, genomics, electronic health records, and drug discovery. Additionally, this paper examines platforms, tools, and quantum hardware used for QAI research, and discusses unique challenges currently faced in quantum technology. Results Unlike prior surveys that primarily provide conceptual overviews, this paper uniquely combines a comprehensive review with practical benchmarking of multiple quantum machine learning models on a benchmark medical dataset. This provides comparative insights into algorithmic performance under real-world constraints, particularly in relation to high-dimensional medical data, genomic data, electronic health records with large number of clinical attributes, radiology images, etc. In this study, dimensionality arises from multivariate clinical features encoded into quantum feature maps and the limitations of current quantum systems. Conclusion This paper aims to serve as a starting point for researchers and practitioners interested in the potential of quantum-enhanced AI to transform health data analytics. By identifying current limitations, evaluating the performance of emerging quantum machine learning approaches, and outlining gaps in the literature, the paper highlights future research directions necessary to advance QAI in healthcare. Overall, the findings outline both the potential and practical constraints of quantum models, offering a foundation for future work toward scalable, clinically applicable QAI solutions.