Whether AI is more accurate in identifying cancer than human radiologists is a controversial debate in the field of medical imaging. A review of 12 studies in 2021 commissioned by the the U.K. National Screening Committee found insufficient evidence to suggest that this was true. Assessing data from over 131,822 screened women in Sweden, the U.S., Germany, the Netherlands and Spain, British researchers found that the methods used in these studies were poor and their applicability to European or U.K. breast cancer screening programs was low.

In three large studies, the majority (34 out of 36 or 94%) of AI systems were less accurate than a single radiologist, and all were less accurate than the consensus of two or more radiologists, which is the standard practice in Europe. While five smaller studies showed the opposite, the authors in those trials noted high risk of bias and said their results were not replicated in larger studies.

The NYU study was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.

The findings were published in Nature Scientific Reports.

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