Earlier results from the same project showed the technology can increase cancer detection while reducing the workload for radiologists.<\/p>\n
What had remained unclear was whether those gains meant fewer cancers would appear later, after screening appeared to show no disease.<\/p>\n
The results, published in the Lancet, come from a trial embedded in Sweden\u2019s national breast-cancer screening programme. <\/p>\n
Almost 106,000 women were assigned to either standard screening, in which mammograms were read independently by two radiologists, or to screening supported by AI.<\/p>\n
Early detection<\/p>\n
In the AI group, software reviewed images alongside radiologists, flagging higher-risk scans for extra scrutiny while allowing lower-risk images to be read once instead of twice.<\/p>\n
Over the two years following screening, fewer women in the AI group were diagnosed with breast cancer after a clear scan. <\/p>\n
The rate of such cases was about 12% lower than among women whose mammograms were read without AI.<\/p>\n
Women screened with AI support were also less likely to be diagnosed later with invasive tumours or aggressive cancer subtypes, the researchers found.<\/p>\n
Importantly, using AI didn\u2019t worsen screening performance or increase false alarms. The rate of false positives was similar in both groups.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur study does not support replacing healthcare professionals with AI,\u201d Jessie Gommers, a PhD candidate at Radboud University Medical Centre in the Netherlands and first author of the paper, said in a statement. <\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, our results potentially justify using AI to ease the substantial pressure on radiologists\u2019 workloads.\u201d<\/p>\n
Economic impact<\/p>\n
Whether AI-supported screening is worth the cost remains an open question. <\/p>\n
Previous modelling from Norway suggested the technology could be cost-effective if it helped prevent even a small share of cancers from being missed. <\/p>\n
The Swedish trial showed a larger drop than that benchmark, though a full economic analysis of the data is still underway, Lang said.<\/p>\n
The researchers said the study has limitations. <\/p>\n
It was conducted within Sweden\u2019s screening programme, using a single type of mammography machine and one AI system, and involved mostly experienced radiologists. <\/p>\n
The results would need to be confirmed in other countries and health systems, they said.<\/p>\n
Further follow-up will also be needed to understand the long-term effects of AI-supported screening, including whether earlier detection reduces the need for aggressive treatment over time.<\/p>\n
Sign up to Herald Premium Editor\u2019s Picks<\/a>, delivered straight to your inbox every Friday. Editor-in-Chief Murray Kirkness picks the week\u2019s best features, interviews and investigations. Sign up for Herald Premium here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Earlier results from the same project showed the technology can increase cancer detection while reducing the workload for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":447851,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[184557,62,15904,14050,28868,49,48,37162,17599,7495,23806,184555,178356,84,47560,23063,68313,2170,47032,84342,10759,184556,10996,696,32320,2605,1297],"class_list":["post-447850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-184557","tag-ai","tag-artificial","tag-between","tag-breast","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cancers","tag-cases","tag-dangerous","tag-earlier","tag-emerging","tag-fewer","tag-health","tag-helped","tag-intelligence","tag-linked","tag-more","tag-routine","tag-screenings","tag-spot","tag-swedish","tag-than","tag-to","tag-trial","tag-was","tag-women"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}