Mammography is the best tool our doctors have for detecting breast cancer, but it still has some limitations.
Now experts are exploring the benefits of adding artificial intelligence to this potentially life-saving test.
For women over the age of 40, many doctors recommend an annual mammogram, the sooner they can detect breast cancer. The greater are the chances of survival and recovery and technology has drastically improved over the years to aid in this.
“We went from the old analogue examinations of breast tissue to full digital mammography, to today’s 3D mammography and even to contrast-enhanced mammography. The advancement of technology was amazing, but it was exceeding the capacity of the human eye and the human brain. to extract information from those images,” said Connie Lehman, PhD Director of Mass General Brigham Breast Imaging.
This is where artificial intelligence comes in, super-fast computers that analyze those images and look for masses that the human eye can’t detect. Artificial intelligence can also help assess future cancer risk.
“We can also guide women to understand that they may not have obvious cancer on their mammogram now, but are at risk in the next five to 10 years. And so, we want to talk about more effective treatment for them, Lehmann said.
Dr. Lehman and a team of researchers are currently studying the accuracy of artificial intelligence on previously stored mammograms.
They want to test the accuracy in a retail population of women. Dr. Lehman says the technology has yet to be studied in a clinical trial. Which is an important step to confirm that artificial intelligence is an effective detection tool.
In high-risk women, artificial intelligence could one day save their lives.
