Imaging: cancer and tuberculosis screening: what the evidence shows

These tools read screening mammograms or chest X-rays, score each exam and mark suspicious areas. A 2021 BMJ systematic review of AI in breast screening (12 studies, 131,822 women) found no prospective accuracy studies, and 34 of 36 AI systems in the larger retrospective studies were less accurate than a single radiologist. A 2023 Radiology meta-analysis found standalone AI for screening digital mammography performed as well as or better than radiologists, with too few studies to judge tomosynthesis. In PRAIM, an observational study of a different product, Vara MG, in 463,094 women at 12 German sites, radiologists who chose AI support detected 6.7 cancers per 1,000, versus 5.7 in the control group, without a higher recall rate.

For tuberculosis, the World Health Organization in 2021 conditionally recommended, on low-certainty evidence, that computer-aided detection software may replace human readers of digital chest X-rays for screening and triage in people aged 15 and older.