Google system could improve breast cancer detection - study

In the United States, only one radiologist reads the results and the tests are done every one to two years. In Britain, the tests are done every three years, and each is read by two radiologists. When they disagree, a third is consulted.'SUBTLE CUES'In a separate test, the group pitted the AI system against six radiologists and found it outperformed them at accurately detecting breast cancers.Connie Lehman, chief of the breast imaging department at Harvard's Massachusetts General Hospital, said the results are in line with findings from several groups using AI to improve cancer detection in mammograms, including her own work.The notion of using computers to improve cancer diagnostics is decades old, and computer-aided detection (CAD) systems are commonplace in mammography clinics, yet CAD programs have not improved performance in clinical practice.The issue, Lehman said, is that current CAD programs were trained to identify things human radiologists can see, whereas with AI, computers learn to spot cancers based on the actual results of thousands of mammograms.This has the potential to "exceed human capacity to identify subtle cues that the human eye and brain aren't able to perceive," Lehman added.Although computers have not been "super helpful" so far, "what we've shown at least in tens of thousands of mammograms is the tool can actually make a very well-informed decision," Etemadi said.The study has some limitations. Most of the tests were done using the same type of imaging equipment, and the U.S. group contained a lot of patients with confirmed breast cancers.Crucially, the team has yet to show the tool improves patient care, said Dr Lisa Watanabe, chief medical officer of CureMetrix, whose AI mammogram program won U.S. approval last year."AI