The Impact of AI on Breast Cancer Detection and Recurrence

This is a special edition of our newsletter Ultrasound Today. In support of Breast Cancer Awareness month, we’ve created a complimentary white paper for clinicians and patients entitled The Impact of AI on Breast Cancer Detection & Recurrence. We invite you to download the full paper on our website.

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Breast cancer impacts the lives of thousands of women in the US each year. For decades, doctors and researchers across the world have been seeking new ways to prevent, diagnose, and treat this life-threatening disease.

Characterized by an out-of-control growth in women's breast cells, it can start in one or both breasts. While early detection increases a patient's chances of survival, the disease continues to pose a significant risk in women's health.

The introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) in medicine, especially in the radiology sector, is expected to represent a major improvement in the detection of breast cancer to enhance the outcome of diagnosed patients.

After skin cancer, breast cancer is the most diagnosed cancer in women in the United States. According to the American Cancer Society (ACS), of all new female cancers diagnosed each year, about 30% of them are breast cancer. The ACS released its yearly breast cancer estimates for 2022:

? 287,850 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed in women.

? 51,400 new cases of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) will be diagnosed.

? 43,250 women will die from breast cancer.

While AI appears to be an incredible asset for modern medicine, some healthcare professionals doubt its efficiency and that's why we consider it relevant to discuss the fundamentals of artificial intelligence to understand its possibilities and limitations fully.

In a case study conducted by Medtronic in 2022, the authors stated that 72% of healthcare executives trust AI to support nonclinical and administrative processes that allow doctors to dedicate more time for patient care.

They also shared valuable insights about the top 3 potential improvements in patient outcomes that AI is currently providing:

? 41% for virtual patient care.

? 40% for diagnosis and outcomes prediction.

? 36% for medical imaging interpretation.

Right now, the most common roles for AI in the healthcare field are related to clinical decision support and imaging analysis. Clinical decision support software helps practitioners make adequate decisions for the needs of the patients by facilitating quick access to information and research.

Despite being relatively new, artificial intelligence systems have been proven to act as an aid for radiologists when it comes to productivity, sensitivity, and specificity in breast cancer detection.

On the whole, AI is still a novel addition to the radiologist's toolkit and there are a lack of regulations and laws around its use and the use of patient information. To make these advances possible, government agencies must stay up to date with new technologies and propose modernized guidelines for providers to have a standard to follow as well as for patients to understand their rights in terms of privacy. Regardless of this, it is certain that AI will continue to be a significant topic in radiology, and in particular, in the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of breast cancer.

Read the full version of this article by downloading our complimentary white paper here.