Artificial intelligence could diagnose breast cancer better than doctors

A computer could be better than a doctor at diagnosing certain types of cancerous and precancerous breast lesions, new research suggests. Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, trained an artificial intelligence system using 240 biopsy images, and tested it against 87 pathologists. The machine performed more or less as well as doctors at detecting and classifying all of the breast biopsies. However, it was better at making one crucial distinction: telling the difference between DCIS (ductal carcinoma in situ), a type of cancer, and atypical hyperplasia, a high-risk lesion that has very similar hallmarks but does is not cancerous and does not require the same level of treatment. 'Medical images of breast biopsies contain a great deal of complex data and interpreting them can be very subjective,' said Dr Joann Elmore, lead author of the study published in the JAMA Network Open journal.