Novel AI Model Predicts Breast Cancer as well as Doctors

Published today in the peer-reviewed journal Radiology, an IBM Research team created a new artificial intelligence (AI) model that can predict breast cancer malignancy and identify normal digital mammography exams as accurately as radiologists. Mammography, a low-dose x-ray procedure to image breasts, is considered the best breast cancer screening test available according to the American Cancer Society. However, mammograms are not always accurate. According to a U.S. 10-year study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, 23.8 percent of study participants had at least one false positive mammogram where breast cancer was not actually present. Furthermore, the American Cancer Society estimates that one in five screening mammograms are false-negatives that fail to detect existing breast cancer.