Summary
Artificial intelligence (AI) assessments of chest X-rays identified 28% of never-smokers as being at high-risk for lung cancer, according to research to be presented at the annual Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) conference next week.
In a large study of never-smokers, researchers found that artificial assessment of routine chest X-rays identified a high risk of lung cancer in 28 percent of patients who had over double the risk of those deemed to have low risk.
For the study, which will be presented at the annual Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) conference next week in Chicago, researchers evaluated the capability of a deep learning model to assess lung cancer risk based on routine outpatient chest X-rays from 17,407 never-smokers (mean age of 63).
The deep learning model detected a high risk for lung cancer in 28 percent of the cohort and 2.9 percent of these patients were subsequently diagnosed with lung cancer, according to the study authors.
Study Shows Benefits of AI in Detecting Lung Cancer Risk in Non-Smokers
ln a study of over 17,000 never-smokers, an emerging deep learning model detected a high risk for lung cancer in 28 percent of the cohort and 2.9 percent of these patients were subsequently diagnosed with lung cancer. (Images courtesy of RSNA.)
“This AI tool opens the door for opportunistic screening for never-smokers at high risk of lung cancer, using existing chest X-rays in the electronic medical record,” said senior study author Michael T. Lu, M.D., M.P.H., the director of artificial intelligence and co-director of the Cardiovascular Imaging Research Center (CIRC) at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). “Since cigarette smoking rates are declining, approaches to detect lung cancer early in those who do not smoke are going to be increasingly important.”
Never-smokers have 10 to 20 percent of lung cancers diagnosed in the United States, according to the American Cancer Society. This study’s high-risk group with subsequent lung cancer diagnosis in 2.9 percent of patients more than doubled the 1.3 percent six-year risk threshold for the use of CT lung cancer screening as recommended by the National Comprehensive Cancer Guidelines, according to the study authors.
However, as the researchers pointed out, screening guidelines are geared to current smokers or those who have smoked heavily in the past.
