A New Artificial Intelligence Can Help Diagnose Lung Cancer a Year Early

"Bad news can be good news when it comes early.

And scientists have revealed an artificial intelligence (AI) program capable of identifying key signs of lung cancer in CT scans a full year earlier than existing methods can, according to new research presented at the European Respiratory Society International Congress.

Since cancer is a progressive disease that is less treatable the later it's diagnosed, this AI program has the potential to help save lives.

Sifting through CT scans takes radiologists too long

Lung cancer is the most common cause of death from the disease, with roughly 1.8 million lives utterly destroyed globally every year. But lung cancer is frequently diagnosed at a late stage, which is sadly also when treatment is least likely to work. This is why researchers have placed some hope in AI, intending to employ it in the lung cancer screening process, hastening the procedure and potentially diagnosing patients at an earlier, more treatable stage. Conventional computerized tomography (CT) scans can already reveal features of lung tumors, and a post-CT biopsy or surgery can confirm the malignancy of the tumor. But every scan employs an expert radiologist, who has to scavenge roughly 300 images for key signs of lung tumors, which can be very subtle, and tiny..." Lire la suite