AI can find lung cancer months earlier using general practitioner data: study

Researchers of the Amsterdam UMC think that general practitioners will be able to detect lung cancer four months earlier with the aid of artificial intelligence. They wrote about this in a study which was published on Wednesday in the British Journal of General Practice.

An algorithm looks at all the medical information that a GP has, the researchers explain. The AI picks up a “predictive signal” in the medical history of the patients. Other studies use specific search terms, such as “smoking” or “coughing up blood.”

But the so-called “free text” about patients contains information that the algorithm from this study can use to detect cancer earlier, Ameen Abu-Hanna, a professor of Clinical Informatics and co-researcher, explained.

Further research will show exactly which data the algorithm works on before it can be used in practice. Data from 525,526 patients from four general practitioners networks in Amsterdam, Utrecht, and Groningen was used for this study.

The scientists emphasized that past research into lung cancer proved that the survival odds increase if treatment were to begin four weeks earlier.