AI outperform humans in identifying ovarian cancer

Researchers at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have led a study showing how AI-based models can outperform human experts at identifying ovarian cancer in ultrasound images.

Ovarian tumours are common and are often detected by chance
Ovarian tumours are common and are often detected by chance - AdobeStock

According to Elisabeth Epstein, a professor in obstetrics and gynaecology at Karolinska Institutet, ovarian tumours are common and are often detected by chance.

“There is a serious shortage of ultrasound experts in many parts of the world, which has raised concerns of unnecessary interventions and delayed cancer diagnoses,” Prof Epstein said in a statement. “We therefore wanted to find out if AI can complement human experts.”

The researchers have developed and validated neural network models able to differentiate between benign and malignant ovarian lesions, having trained and tested the AI on over 17,000 ultrasound images from 3,652 patients across 20 hospitals in eight countries. They then compared the models’ diagnostic capacity with a large group of experts and less experienced ultrasound examiners.

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The results showed that the AI models outperformed expert and non-expert examiners at identifying ovarian cancer, achieving an accuracy rate of 86.3 per cent, compared to 82.6 per cent and 77.7 per cent for the expert and non-expert examiners respectively.

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