AI beats human in detecting breast cancer: experts

A computer programme can identify breast cancer from routine scans with greater accuracy than human experts, researchers said in what they hoped could prove a breakthrough in the fight against the global killer. Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in women, and regular screening is vital in detecting the earliest signs of the disease in patients who show no obvious symptoms. Researchers at Google Health have trained an artificial intelligence model to detect cancer in breast scans from thousands of women in Britain and the United States. The team found that their AI model could predict breast cancer from the scans with a similar accuracy level to expert radiographers. Further, the AI showed a reduction in the proportion of cases where cancer was incorrectly identified -- 5.7 percent in the US and 1.2 percent in Britain, respectively. It also reduced the percentage of missed diagnoses by 9.4 percent among US patients and by 2.7 percent in Britain.