Radiologists, AI make a great team in screening mammo

August 27, 2020 — The combination of an artificial intelligence (AI)-based computer-aided detection (CAD) algorithm with radiologist interpretation can detect more cases of breast cancer on screening mammograms than double reading by radiologists, according to research published online August 27 in JAMA: Oncology.

Researchers from the Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm, Sweden, retrospectively compared three commercially available AI models in a case-control study involving nearly 9,000 women who had undergone screening mammography. They found that one of the models demonstrated sufficient diagnostic performance to merit further prospective evaluation as an independent reader.

What’s more, the best results — 88.6% sensitivity with 93% specificity — were achieved when utilizing that algorithm’s results along with the first radiologist interpretation.

“Combining the first readers with the best algorithm identified more cases positive for cancer than combining the first readers with second readers,” wrote the authors, led by Dr. Mattie Salim. “No other examined combination of AI algorithms and radiologists surpassed this sensitivity level.”