AI-assisted mammograms cut risk of developing aggressive breast cancer

People who are screened for breast cancer by AI-supported radiologists are less likely to develop aggressive cancers before their next screening round than those who are screened by radiologists alone, raising hopes that AI-assisted screening could save lives. "This is the first randomised controlled trial on the use of AI in mammography screening," says Kristina Lång at Lund University in Sweden. The AI-supported approach involves using the software - which has been trained on more than 200,000 mammography scans from 10 countries - to rank the likelihood of cancer being present in mammograms on a scale of 1 to 10, based on visual patterns in the scans. The scans receiving a score of 1 to 9 are then assessed by one experienced radiologist, while scans receiving a score of 10 - indicating cancer is most likely to be present - are assessed by two experienced radiologists. An earlier study found that this approach could detect 29 per cent more cancers than standard screening, where each mammogram is assessed by two radiologists, without increasing the rate of false detections - where a growth is flagged but follow-up tests reveal it isn't actually there or wouldn't go on to cause problems.