5 years ago
Using AI to Predict Breast Cancer and Personalize Care

By:  Adam Conner-Simons and Rachel Gordon, CSAIL

Originally published in MIT News May 7, 2019

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MIT/MGH’s image-based deep learning model can predict breast cancer up to five years in advance.

Despite major advances in genetics and modern imaging, the diagnosis catches most breast cancer patients by surprise. For some, it comes too late. Later diagnosis means aggressive treatments, uncertain outcomes, and more medical expenses. As a result, identifying patients has been a central pillar of breast cancer research and effective early detection.

With that in mind, a team from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) has created a new deep-learning model that can predict from a mammogram if a patient is likely to develop breast cancer as much as five years in the future. Trained on mammograms and known outcomes from over 60,000 MGH patients, the model learned the subtle patterns in breast tissue that are precursors to malignant tumors.

MIT Professor Regina Barzilay, herself a breast cancer survivor, says that the hope is for systems like these to enable doctors to customize screening and prevention programs at the individual level, making late diagnosis a relic of the past.

Although mammography has been shown to reduce breast cancer mortality, there is continued debate on how often to screen and when to start. While the American Cancer Society recommends annual screening starting at age 45, the U.S. Preventative Task Force recommends screening every two years starting at age 50.

“Rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach, we can personalize screening around a woman’s risk of developing cancer,” says Barzilay, senior author of a new paper about the project out today in Radiology. “For example, a doctor might recommend that one group of women get a mammogram every other year, while another higher-risk group might get supplemental MRI screening.” Barzilay is the Delta Electronics Professor at CSAIL and the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT and a member of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT.

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