Artificial intelligence (AI) will play an increasingly important role in identifying women at high risk of breast cancer, new research shows.
A new paper by Associate Professor Wendy Ingman explained that AI may be able to identify early malignancies undetectable by radiologists.
“Artificial intelligence is enabling us to delve deeply into the information inherent in a mammogram, and identify novel features associated with higher risk of a future breast cancer diagnosis,” A/Prof Ingman said.
A/Prof Ingman is based at the Basil Hetzel Institute and a past Australian Breast Cancer Research Fellow through ABCR and The Hospital Research Foundation Group.
In a recent perspective article in the journal Trends of Cancer, A/Prof Ingman and colleagues from the University of Melbourne, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, and the University of Western Australia suggested that in the future, AI may be able to identify early malignancies undetectable by radiologists.
For decades, mammographic breast density — patterns of white and dark areas on a mammogram — has been studied as a risk factor for breast cancer.
AI is enhancing this approach by enabling researchers and radiologists to refine mammographic density as a risk factor and hone in on particular features in a mammogram.
“AI methods are now uncovering mammographic features that are stronger predictors of breast cancer risk than any other known risk factor,” A/Prof Ingman said.
