Regular screening is essential in detecting early signs of Breast Cancer. A recent large Swedish study revealed that artificial intelligence (AI) could potentially reduce the workload of radiologists by almost half when it comes to analyzing routine scans for breast cancer.
While AI is already proficient in reading medical scans, the authors of the study emphasized that further research is necessary before implementing AI on a wider scale for breast cancer screening.
With a shortage of radiologists in many countries, there is hope that AI can streamline the time-consuming task of analyzing routine scans, making it faster and more accurate.
Breast cancer is particularly impactful, with over 2.3 million women diagnosed and 685,000 deaths recorded in 2020, according to the World Health Organization.
The study in Sweden involved 80,000 women who underwent mammograms at four sites between April 2021 and July 2022. The scans were randomly assigned for analysis by either an AI-supported system or two human radiologists.
The AI algorithm accurately identified 20% more cases of cancer, translating to an additional case for every thousand women screened. Both the AI-supported system and the human radiologists had the same rate of identifying false positives.
Moreover, the use of AI reduced the workload for radiologists by 44%, as only one person was needed to read the scans instead of two.
While the interim safety results of the study were promising, lead author Kristina Lang emphasized that more time is needed to determine if AI can reduce the detection of interval cancers, which are found between routine screenings.
Although there is some concern that the AI algorithm may have over-diagnosed certain types of early breast cancer, such as ductal carcinoma in situ, the study was praised for its high quality in addressing the burden on radiologists’ time.
In conclusion, AI shows potential in alleviating the workload of radiologists and improving the efficiency of breast cancer screening. However, further research is necessary to ensure its effectiveness and safety.

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