An artificial intelligence system designed to detect breast cancer spotted the disease as accurately as radiologists. File Photo by Rhoda Baer/Wikimedia Commons

March 6 (UPI) -- Pinpointing breast cancer in the early stages may get a little easier, as researchers found an artificial intelligence system can spot the disease as well as radiologists.

An artificial intelligence system designed to detect breast cancer spotted the disease as accurately as radiologists, according to findings published Wednesday in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The results from the AI detection system were compared to 101 radiologists who scored nine types of mammography exams from four different manufacturers.


In all, the radiologists returned more than 2,600 exams that yielded 653 malignant cancer diagnosis.

"Before we could decide what is the best way for AI systems to be introduced in the realm of breast cancer screening with mammography, we wanted to know how good can these systems really be," said Ioannis Sechopoulos, a researcher at Radboud University and study author, in a news release.

This isn't the first time computer-aided detection systems have been used. Health professionals began using the systems in 1990s. The systems, researchers say, didn't provide better screenings and they didn't save costs.

This new technology comes just as the nation faces a shortage of radiologists.

The American Cancer Society estimates that nearly 270,000 women in the U.S. will be diagnosed with breast cancer, the deadliest form of cancer for women.

The study says that more than 500,000 die each year from breast cancer.

"It was exciting to see that these systems have reached the level of matching the performance of not just radiologists, but of radiologists who spend at least a substantial portion of their time reading screening mammograms."