Are artificial intelligence systems useful in breast cancer screening programmes?

Abstract

Population-based breast cancer screening programmes are efficacious in reducing the mortality due to breast cancer. These programmes use mammography to screen the women who are invited to participate. Digital mammography makes it possible to develop computer-assisted diagnosis (CAD) systems that promise to reduce the workload of radiologists participating in screening programmes. However, various studies have shown that CAD results in a high rate of false positive diagnoses. Systems based on artificial intelligence are being more widely implemented, and studies have shown that these systems have better diagnostic performance than traditional CAD systems.This article explains the fundamentals of artificial intelligence systems and an overview of possible applications of these systems within the framework of breast cancer screening programmes.