WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Previous studies have suggested that artificial intelligence holds a great potential for the medical field. Supporting this, a recent real-world study, published in the journal Nature Medicine, demonstrated that with the help of AI doctors could detect more cancer cases during breast screening.
'AI in mammography screening is at least as good as a human reader, and our study shows it's even better,' said cancer epidemiologist Alexander Katalinic of the University of Lubeck in Germany.
Conducted in Germany, the study analyzed data from 461,818 women aged between 50 and 69, who underwent breast cancer screening between July 2021 and February 2023.
The scans of all women were independently examined by two radiologists, while about 260,000 women's data were analyzed by radiologists using an AI-supported image viewer, which categorized the breast screenings as normal, suspicious or unclassified.
The participating clinicians, who didn't use AI assistance, identified about six breast cancer cases, per 1,000 patients during screening, confirmed via biopsy. In contrast, with the help of AI software, the doctors found seven cases per 1,000 women, a 17.6 percent higher cancer detection rate.
'In our study, we had a higher detection rate without having a higher rate of false positives,' Katalinic noted. 'This is a better result, with the same harm.'
The AI also alerts healthcare professionals if a suspicious case has been misjudged as unsuspicious by the radiologist, providing a safety net.
Stefan Bunk, another co-author and a co-founder of Vara, the company behind the AI software, emphasized the tool's ability to reduce false positive results and alleviate the workload for radiologists.
Copyright(c) 2025 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
© 2025 AFX News
