AI isn’t just helping detect breast cancer – it’s also identifying women at risk years before a diagnosis might occur

Douglas Flora shared on LinkedIn:

“Important share from our sister publication, Inside Precision Medicine below.

As AI hits the diagnostics mainstream, I’m sincerely hopeful that advanced-stage cancers in patients willing to be screened will soon become a historical footnote. Recent research published in JAMA Network Open reveals that AI isn’t just helping radiologists detect breast cancer at the time of screening—it’s also identifying women at risk years before a diagnosis might occur.

In this study, commercially available AI algorithms analyzed mammograms and provided scores indicating a suspicion of breast cancer, even when the cancer wasn’t yet visible to the human eye. These algorithms not only mark areas of immediate concern but also highlight imaging features associated with cancers that may develop years later. This breakthrough could lead to more personalized, earlier screening and prevention strategies, which may allow us to diagnose breast cancer in its earliest stages and avoid more aggressive treatments. Thanks for sharing this, Damian Doherty!

The authors note: ‘Although current commercial AI tools, such as the one used in our study, were not developed or optimized for future cancer risk estimations, we found that the AI system’s discriminatory accuracy for estimating future screening-detected or interval cancer risk 4 to 6 years before diagnosis met or exceeded the performance of established risk calculators currently in wide use.’

With regulatory approvals in place and promising results like these, AI is rapidly becoming a key player in radiology and oncology. The potential to detect cancer earlier and tailor screenings more effectively could reshape how we approach cancer care, leading to better outcomes and longer, healthier lives.

The future of cancer care is bright, and AI is helping us take a significant step forward in preventing advanced-stage disease before it can even begin.”

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Source: Douglas Flora/LinkedIn