AI Tool Improves Accuracy of Breast Cancer Imaging

A computer program trained to see patterns among thousands of breast ultrasound images can aid physicians in accurately diagnosing breast cancer, a new study shows.

When tested separately on 44,755 already completed ultrasound exams, the artificial intelligence (AI) tool improved radiologists' ability to correctly identify the disease by 37 percent and reduced the number of tissue samples, or biopsies, needed to confirm suspect tumors by 27 percent.

Led by researchers from the Department of Radiology at NYU Langone Health and its Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center, the team’s AI analysis is believed to be the largest of its kind, involving 288,767 separate ultrasound exams taken from 143,203 women treated at NYU Langone hospitals in New York City between 2012 and 2018. The team’s report publishes online Sept. 24 in the journal Nature Communications.

"Our study demonstrates how artificial intelligence can help radiologists reading breast ultrasound exams to reveal only those that show real signs of breast cancer and to avoid verification by biopsy in cases that turn out to be benign," says study senior investigator Krzysztof Geras, PhD.

Ultrasound exams use high-frequency sound waves passing through tissue to construct real-time images of breast or other tissues. Although not generally used as a breast cancer screening tool, it has served as an alternative (to mammography) or follow-up diagnostic test for many women, says Geras, an assistant professor in the Department of Radiology at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and a member of the Perlmutter Cancer Center.

Ultrasound is cheaper, more widely available in community clinics, and does not involve exposure to radiation, the researchers say. Moreover, ultrasound is better than mammography for penetrating dense breast tissue and distinguishing packed but healthy cells from compact tumors.

However, the technology has also been found to result in too many false diagnoses of breast cancer, producing anxiety and unnecessary procedures for women. Some studies have shown that a majority of breast ultrasound exams indicating signs of cancer turn out to be noncancerous after biopsy.

"If our efforts to use machine learning as a triaging tool for ultrasound studies prove successful, ultrasound could become a more effective tool in breast cancer screening, especially as an alternative to mammography, and for those with dense breast tissue," says study co-investigator and radiologist Linda Moy, MD. "Its future impact on improving women's breast health could be profound," adds Moy, a professor at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and a member of the Perlmutter Cancer Center.

Geras cautions that while his team's initial results are promising, his team only looked at past exams in their latest analysis, and clinical trials of the tool in current patients and real-world conditions are needed before it can be routinely deployed. He also has plans to refine the AI software to include additional patient information, such as a woman's added risk from having a family history or genetic mutation tied to breast cancer, which was not included in their latest analysis.

For the study, over half of ultrasound breast examinations were used to create the computer program. Ten radiologists then each reviewed a separate set of 663 breast exams, with an average accuracy of 92 percent. When aided by the AI model, their average accuracy in diagnosing breast cancer improved to 96 percent. All diagnoses were checked against tissue biopsy results.

The latest statistics from the American Cancer Society estimate that one in eight women (13 percent) in the U.S. will be diagnosed with breast cancer over their lifetime, with more than 300,000 positive diagnoses in 2021 alone.

Shen Y, Shamout FE, Oliver JR, Witowski J, Kannan K, Park J, Wu N, Huddleston C, Wolfson S, Millet A, Ehrenpreis R, Awal D, Tyma C, Samreen N, Gao Y, Chhor C, Gandhi S, Lee C, Kumari-Subaiya S, Leonard C, Mohammed R, Moczulski C, Altabet J, Babb J, Lewin A, Reig B, Moy L, Heacock L, Geras KJ.
Artificial intelligence system reduces false-positive findings in the interpretation of breast ultrasound exams.
Nat Commun. 2021 Sep 24;12(1):5645. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-26023-2

Most Popular Now

Unlocking the 10 Year Health Plan

The government's plan for the NHS is a huge document. Jane Stephenson, chief executive of SPARK TSL, argues the key to unlocking its digital ambitions is to consider what it...

Alcidion Grows Top Talent in the UK, wit…

Alcidion has today announced the addition of three new appointments to their UK-based team, with one internal promotion and two external recruits. Dr Paul Deffley has been announced as the...

AI can Find Cancer Pathologists Miss

Men assessed as healthy after a pathologist analyses their tissue sample may still have an early form of prostate cancer. Using AI, researchers at Uppsala University have been able to...

New Training Year Starts at Siemens Heal…

In September, 197 school graduates will start their vocational training or dual studies in Germany at Siemens Healthineers. 117 apprentices and 80 dual students will begin their careers at Siemens...

AI, Full Automation could Expand Artific…

Automated insulin delivery (AID) systems such as the UVA Health-developed artificial pancreas could help more type 1 diabetes patients if the devices become fully automated, according to a new review...

How AI could Speed the Development of RN…

Using artificial intelligence (AI), MIT researchers have come up with a new way to design nanoparticles that can more efficiently deliver RNA vaccines and other types of RNA therapies. After training...

MIT Researchers Use Generative AI to Des…

With help from artificial intelligence, MIT researchers have designed novel antibiotics that can combat two hard-to-treat infections: drug-resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae and multi-drug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Using generative AI algorithms, the research...

AI Hybrid Strategy Improves Mammogram In…

A hybrid reading strategy for screening mammography, developed by Dutch researchers and deployed retrospectively to more than 40,000 exams, reduced radiologist workload by 38% without changing recall or cancer detection...

Penn Developed AI Tools and Datasets Hel…

Doctors treating kidney disease have long depended on trial-and-error to find the best therapies for individual patients. Now, new artificial intelligence (AI) tools developed by researchers in the Perelman School...

Are You Eligible for a Clinical Trial? C…

A new study in the academic journal Machine Learning: Health discovers that ChatGPT can accelerate patient screening for clinical trials, showing promise in reducing delays and improving trial success rates. Researchers...

Global Study Reveals How Patients View M…

How physicians feel about artificial intelligence (AI) in medicine has been studied many times. But what do patients think? A team led by researchers at the Technical University of Munich...

New AI Tool Addresses Accuracy and Fairn…

A team of researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai has developed a new method to identify and reduce biases in datasets used to train machine-learning algorithms...