Oncology

Comprehensive Summary

This article studies the use of AI in breast cancer detection in a real-world setting, comparing double reading using an AI-supported medical device against double reading without AI support. The data was collected from asymptomatic women aged 50-69 years who were part of Germany’s organized breast cancer screening program. One group of participants used the AI system for screening while the other group of participants had their mammogram results read independently by two radiologists and the breast cancer diagnosis results were compared for both groups. From this study, the authors found that across both groups 41.9 per 1,000 women were recalled for further assessment based on the test results. Furthermore, in the AI group 59.4% of the results came back normal with the rest coming back not normal (40.6%) compared to 53.3% normal for the control group and 46.7% not normal. The breast cancer detection rate (BCDR) per 1,000 women screened was 6.70 for the AI group and 5.70 for the control group, meaning the AI system detected one additional cancer per 1,000 screened women when taking the absolute difference. Lastly, the AI group had a lower recall rate (37.4 per 1,000) than the control group (38.3 per 1,000) but had an 8.2% higher biopsy rate than the control group. Overall, this study incorporates data from over 460,000 women, 119 radiologists, 5 different machine vendors and 12 screening sites across Germany to assess the use of AI in breast cancer screening. The findings from this study demonstrate that the use of AI in breast cancer screening results in higher BCDRs along with comparable recall rates to the control group.

Outcomes and Implications

Many screening programs experience labor shortages due to the lack of radiologists to interpret the results. Therefore, integrating AI into screening workflows can alleviate this problem to some extent and according to this study, radiologists in the AI group spent less time interpreting screens that were tagged as normal by AI compared to those with no tags. Developing an accurate AI system for screening can lessen the workload on radiologists and expedite the screening process for patients. While this work supports the use of AI-supported mammography screening, further research is needed to assess the effects of AI-supported screening on interval cancer rate and stage-at-diagnosis distribution at subsequent screening rounds.

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AIIM Research

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© 2025 AIIM. Created by AIIM IT Team

AIIM Research

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© 2025 AIIM. Created by AIIM IT Team

AIIM Research

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© 2025 AIIM. Created by AIIM IT Team