Machine Learning Could Detect Cancer More Quickly and Accurately -- NOVA Next PBS

Deep learning--one of the most promising approaches to artificial intelligence--could change the way cancer is detected. The National Cancer Institute provided computer scientists with 2,000 low-dose CT scans of patients' torsos with the goal of improving the detection of lung cancer. While the imaging technique uses less radiation than other methods, when doctors interpret the images, they tend to make false positive diagnoses--they're not easy images for human eyes to decipher. It's no secret that humans routinely miss things in images, and particularly medical images. Four years ago, researchers asked 24 radiologists to pick out a nodule on a CT scan.