TechTheDay

Breast cancer gets the best in many of us. In the USA alone, there is one in every eight women who develop the disease in their lifetime. However, it is great news to know that artificial intelligence can now help with its early detection.

A medical collaboration

Google claims to have developed an AI system that can help trace and detect breast cancer much better than any health expert can. The research study that tested the precision of the system was, in fact, created via the collaboration of Google and big cancer researchers. The program will detect cancer with the aid of thousands of mammogram devices from women in the USA and the UK. The research reveals that it can yield a much accurate early detection than any human radiologist can.

A medical breakthrough

The medical breakthrough used artificial intelligence technology that resulted in very low false positives, where the test results indicate that cancer is present when it is not — false positives, where the present cancer is undetected. When compared to medical experts, the study reduced false-positive results by approximately 6% of the US subjects and nearly 1.5% for its UK correspondents. The entire AI system is more precise even with the lacking information, like mammograms or patient medical histories.

One of the forerunners and director of Cancer Research in the UK, Professor Darzi, said he, too, was very amazed by the impressive results from the AI system. He claims that it is one great discovery that people must have on their hand, which can help immensely provide faster screenings in terms of productivity and precision as he reiterated his findings with CNN Business.

Leading cause of death in women

Breast cancer is known as the second leading cause of death among women to date. But, it can nevertheless be treated, and one can be cured if the disease has been traced as well as treated early on. 

But, with the large scale and widespread breast cancer screening programs, we have today, the high-end procedures are unable to find out one in about five breast cancers in women. This is according to the ACS or American Cancer Society. Even medical experts’ findings are often flawed and need room for improvement. The AI system is poised to address the apparent shortages in the radiology industry. 

Radiologist deficiency

A recent study revealed that 80% of the radiology department directors feel that there is clinical radiologist deficiency who can provide safe, precise, and efficient patient care and assistance for breast cancer patients. A certain medical forecast reveals that there is a need for about 3000 radiologists in order to supplant the projected deficiency by 2022. To date, there are two radiologists needed to interpret every single mammogram. The artificial intelligence system can be utilized to replace the succeeding reader in this case. But, it is early to tell whether the system can immediately replace humans at this stage.

Bottom Line

The early detection, as well as proper diagnosis of breast cancer along with Google’s research and collaboration, shows how AI can help medical practitioners to more precisely diagnose as well as predict other serious cancer ailments and suppress detrimental eye diseases.