New computer program beats physicians at brain cancer diagnoses, could eliminate costly and risky brain biopsies

Computer programs have defeated humans in Jeopardy!, chess and Go. Now a program developed at Case Western Reserve University has outperformed physicians on a more serious matter. The program was nearly twice as accurate as two neuroradiologists in determining whether abnormal tissue seen on magnetic resonance images (MRI) were dead brain cells caused by radiation, called radiation necrosis, or if brain cancer had returned. The direct comparison is part of a feasibility study published in the American Journal of Neuroradiology today. "One of the biggest challenges with the evaluation of brain tumor treatment is distinguishing between the confounding effects of radiation and cancer recurrence," said Pallavi Tiwari, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Case Western Reserve and leader of the study.