Commentary: AI improves breast cancer detection, but will that save lives?

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Radiologists can benefit from artificial intelligence technology that flags risky mammograms, but it will take more to confirm that patients benefit, says Lisa Jarvis for Bloomberg Opinion.

. We need more such studies to determine when the technology has real value - and when it might have risks.

All of this is critical information as the technology increasingly becomes integrated into health care.In the study, about 80,000 women in Sweden were randomly assigned to either receive a double reading, where two independent radiologists look at the mammogram, or an AI-supported screening, which was performed by one radiologist and a computer.

“In a situation where the medical workforce is strained, that’s a significant improvement,” says Larry Norton, medical director of the Evelyn H Lauder Breast Center of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Even if the technology doesn’t turn out to be more accurate than doctors at picking up cancers, being just as accurate but faster would still be a major advance, he says.Now comes the hard work of showing that this improves cancer care.

The need for this type of careful evaluation of AI is clear. So-called computer-aided detection that used more rudimentary versions of AI was widely adopted , but it led to an increase in false positives and biopsies for precancerous cells that are not typically dangerous. For now, any efficiencies that come out of the study will mostly benefit people in Europe and Australia, where breast cancer is typically screened by a team of two radiologists that might be safely reduced to one plus a computer.

That points to the potential to use AI to triage the sea of exams passing before a radiologist each day, helping them prioritise the high-risk ones. That could lead to patients getting treated as quickly as possible, says Laura Heacock, a radiologist at NYU Langone Health.

 

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