Google AI spots breast cancer better than doctors, study finds
By Noah Manskar, New York Post, January 2, 2020
Mammogram scan, Shutterstock image
Google’s artificial intelligence detected breast cancer better than doctors, a study published Wednesday found.
The Google AI program that examined mammogram images from thousands of women in the US and the United Kingdom spotted cancer more accurately than six expert radiologists who reviewed 500 random cases, according to the research — which was funded by the tech giant.
The software’s review of nearly 29,000 mammogram scans reduced the number of false negatives — tests that are wrongly deemed normal even though cancer is present — by 9.4 percent in the US and 2.7 percent in the UK, according to the study, published in the journal Nature.
The yellow boxes indicate where the Google Health AI system found cancer hiding inside breast tissue. Pic: Northwestern University
And the number of false positives — tests that are wrongly said to show signs of cancer — fell by 5.7 percent in the US and 1.2 percent in the UK, the research found. The team behind the study included researchers from Google Health, Northwestern Medicine and Imperial College London.
Google Health said the study “sets the stage for future applications where the model could potentially support radiologists performing breast cancer screenings” — though more research and regulatory approval are needed to show how the technology could boost patient care.
The research suggests that AI could help improve the accuracy of mammograms, the most common method of screening for the second-leading cause of cancer deaths among women.
Screening mammography is the most widely used breast cancer screening tool
Mammograms miss roughly one in five breast cancers, according to the American Cancer Society, and inaccurate test results can cause problems for patients. A false positive can lead to anxiety or pricey additional testing, while false negatives can cause women to think they’re cancer-free when they’re not.
Researchers trained Google’s AI program with mammograms from more than 76,000 women in the UK and more than 15,000 in the US, according to Google Health. Google said the software outperformed doctors despite receiving less information than human experts, who also had access to previous mammograms and patient histories.
The study is Google’s latest bid to use its technologies for health purposes — even though some of those efforts have sparked privacy worries.
The Silicon Valley giant’s $2.1 billion acquisition of the health-tracking company Fitbit faces a probe from the US Department of Justice over data privacy concerns, The Post has reported.
Federal officials are also examining “Project Nightingale,” Google’s partnership with the Ascension health system that has reportedly collected detailed information about some 50 million patients.
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