For decades, experts have been exploring how artificial intelligence can help detect breast cancer. Yet cases continue to rise. Deaths continue to devastate, and all of AI’s promise is yet to materialise. We look at what is hindering progress in this space, and what needs to be done for AI’s true, life-saving potential to be realised.
Four women are diagnosed with breast cancer every minute across the globe, a third of whom die from the disease. As of 2020 – the last year for which we have full and verified figures – breast cancer is the most prevalent form of the disease, affecting one in eight women during their lifetime.
This ongoing prevalence has seen breast cancer become one of the most well researched, well funded and well understood cancers of our time. It’s also why, of all the diseases, conditions and applications where AI and machine learning promise real impact, breast cancer is the one with the most hype.
Yet, almost 50 years since researchers...