Dr. Ahmed
AI breast cancer detection at an early stage can help women cure this deadly disease. Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in women.
Breast cancer screening and detection is implemented worldwide to detect it early. The earlier the disease is diagnosed the more chances of cure.
However, despite all the screening detection tools, some cases are missed and are diagnosed later at an advanced stage.
Researchers are investigating the role of Artificial intelligence in detecting breast cancer at an early stage.
The primary mechanism behind AI detection is that images of normal and cancer patients are fed to the AI machine. The machine identifies what is normal and what is abnormal. Based on those images, the machine can then use its memory or knowledge to identify the abnormal scans.
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How accurate is AI breast cancer detection?
A study published in Nature investigated the role of AI in detecting breast cancer at an early stage [Ref].
The results of the study are tabulated below:
| Single-center Pilot | Multicenter Pilot | Full Live Rollout | |
| Additional Cancer Detection per 1,000 Cases | 0.7 | 1.6 | 1.6 |
| Additional Recalls (%) | 0.16 | 0.30 | 0.30 |
| Unnecessary Recalls (%) | 0 | 0.23 | 0.23 |
| Increase in PPV (%) | 0.1 | 1.9 | 1.9 |
| Additional Human Reads of AI-flagged Cases (%) | 7% | 11% | 11% |
The study compared AI breast cancer detection vs breast cancer detection by two different radiologists.
When both radiologists would agree on the positive findings, the patient was recalled for reassessment.
However, when there was disagreement or when the radiologists thought that there was no need to recall the patient, AI would either agree or disagree. In case of AI disagreement, patients were called for reassessment.
As noted in the table above, AI breast cancer detection resulted in fewer unnecessary recalls, and more cancer detection, and had a positive predictive value twice that of the radiologists.
A positive predictive value means when the AI identified breast cancer, it was more likely to be a breast cancer compared to radiologists.
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AI breast cancer detection implementation:
Since breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in women, the implementation of an AI tool can help screen women and detect breast cancer at an early stage.
It can reduce workload if combined with workflows focused on saving time and workloads of radiologists.
More AI detection tools are being tested but it’s going to change diagnostics and therapeutics.
