AI detects breast cancer more accurately than doctors, new study claims
| Updated: Jan 3, 2020, 13:36 IST
A new study conducted by Google Health suggests Google AI (artificial intelligence) can detect breast cancer better than doctors. Researchers from Cancer Research UK Imperial Centre, Northwestern University and Royal Surrey County Hospital were also part of the study.
"The technology’s reading of mammograms reduced both false positives, where healthy patients are mistakenly diagnosed with the disease, and false negatives, where the cancer is missed," the Alphabet unit stated in a blog post.
Data from 28,000 mammograms also revealed this technology helped reduce false positives by 5.7 per cent in the United States (US). The study's findings were originally published in the journal Nature.
Adding, "There will of course be a number of challenges to address before AI could be implemented in mammography screening programmes around the world, but the potential for improving healthcare and helping patients is enormous."
Breast cancer has become a growing issue for women due to various factors."Breast cancer is one of the highest causes of cancer mortality in women. Finding cancer earlier means it can be smaller and easier to treat. We hope this will ultimately save a lot of lives," study co-author Dr Mozziyar Etemadi, from Northwestern University in Chicago, told a news portal. Adding, "The ultimate goal will be to find the best way to combine the two - the magic of the human brain isn't going anywhere any time soon."
Researchers are hoping to conduct further studies. "We hope someday this tool for radiologists becomes as ubiquitous as spell-check for writing e-mail," Scott McKinney, a software engineer at Google Health in California, told a news portal.
"The technology’s reading of mammograms reduced both false positives, where healthy patients are mistakenly diagnosed with the disease, and false negatives, where the cancer is missed," the Alphabet unit stated in a blog post.
Data from 28,000 mammograms also revealed this technology helped reduce false positives by 5.7 per cent in the United States (US). The study's findings were originally published in the journal Nature.
Adding, "There will of course be a number of challenges to address before AI could be implemented in mammography screening programmes around the world, but the potential for improving healthcare and helping patients is enormous."
Breast cancer has become a growing issue for women due to various factors."Breast cancer is one of the highest causes of cancer mortality in women. Finding cancer earlier means it can be smaller and easier to treat. We hope this will ultimately save a lot of lives," study co-author Dr Mozziyar Etemadi, from Northwestern University in Chicago, told a news portal. Adding, "The ultimate goal will be to find the best way to combine the two - the magic of the human brain isn't going anywhere any time soon."
Researchers are hoping to conduct further studies. "We hope someday this tool for radiologists becomes as ubiquitous as spell-check for writing e-mail," Scott McKinney, a software engineer at Google Health in California, told a news portal.