AI Boosts Breast Cancer Detection, Cuts Radiologists’ Workload

A large-scale randomized trial reports that AI can improve breast cancer detection rates while reducing radiologists’ workload. The Mammography Screening with Artificial Intelligence (MASAI) trial, conducted within Sweden’s national screening program, involved over 105,000 women and was published in The Lancet Digital Health.

The study, published in the Lancet Digital Health, found that AI-assisted screening with the Transpara system led to a 29% increase in cancer detection without raising false positives. The study adds that AI-supported workflow reduced radiologists’ screen-reading workload by 44%. These results represent a significant improvement over preliminary findings reported in 2023.

Data from the trial showed that AI-assisted screening detected 338 cancers among 53,043 participants. The cancer detection rate was 6.4 per 1,000 participants in the AI-supported group, compared to 5.0 per 1,000 in the control group. The AI system also identified a higher proportion of invasive cancers and high-grade ductal carcinoma in situ, which are critical for early intervention and treatment.

AI-assisted screening could enhance early detection while optimizing the use of healthcare resources, says Kristina Lång, Department of Translational Medicine, Lund University. The MASAI protocol integrates AI-generated risk data into the radiologists’ workflow, providing insights into lesion detection and cancer prevalence. This approach may help reduce false positives in low-risk screenings and false negatives in high-risk cases.

Transpara, the AI system used in the study, functions as an additional diagnostic aid for radiologists, potentially improving screening efficiency and early cancer detection rates.

The application of AI in cancer care is expected to experience significant growth, with a new report projecting the market will increase from US$2.2 billion in 2024 to US$6.3 billion by 2029, reports MBN. This growth represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23.1% over the five-year period, driven by advances in technology and the rising need for improved cancer diagnosis, treatment, and drug discovery.