In breast cancer, AI-supported mammography more effective than standard, says new study

Use of artificial intelligence in Swedens national breast cancer screening programme has revealed that AIsupported mammography screening is more effective than standard mammography according to full results from a 2023 trial published in The Lancet journalAIsupported breast cancer screening identified more women with clinically relevant cancers without a higher rate of false positives the results showResearchers from Lund University and other institutes in Sweden Norway Denmark and the Netherlands also found that women who underwent AIsupported screening were less likely to be diagnosed with more aggressive and advanced breast cancer in the following two yearsIn August 2023 interim results from the Mammography Screening with Artificial Intelligence MASAI showed that use of AI resulted in the detection of 20 per cent more cancers compared with standard screeningThe team also found that screenreading workload for radiologists reduced by 44 per centThe full results now show that AIsupported mammography also reduces cancer diagnoses in the years following a breast cancer screening appointment by 12 per cent a key test of screening programme effectiveness the researchers saidOur study is the first randomised controlled trial investigating the use of AI in breast cancer screening and the largest to date looking at AI use in cancer screening in general lead author Dr Kristina Lang a breast radiologist and clinical researcher from Lund University Sweden saidShe added AIsupported screening improves the early detection of clinically relevant breast cancers which led to fewer aggressive or advanced cancers diagnosed in between screeningsBetween April 2021 and December 2022 over 105900 women were randomly assigned to either AIsupported mammography screening or to standard double reading by radiologists without AIThe AI system was trained validated and tested with more than two lakh examinations from multiple institutions across more than ten countriesDuring the followup period of two years 155 interval cancers per 1000 women 8253043 were detected in the AIsupported mammography group compared to 176 interval cancers per 1000 women 9352872 in the standard double reading group a 12 per cent reduction in interval cancer diagnosis for the AI armAn interval cancer is a malignancy detected between scheduled screening tests after a prior negative result and before the next routine checkupFurther 81 per cent of cancer cases 338420 in the AIsupported mammography group were detected at screening compared to 74 per cent of cancer cases 262355 in the standard reading group a nine per cent increaseRates of false positives were similar for both the groups 15 per cent in the AIassisted mammography reading and 14 per cent in the standard reading groupWidely rolling out AIsupported mammography in breast cancer screening programmes could help reduce workload pressures amongst radiologists as well as helping to detect more cancers at an early stage including those with aggressive subtypes Lang saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever