Artificial intelligence detects pancreatic cancer years in advance
A promising development has emerged for pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest types of cancer in the world. An artificial intelligence model developed at the Mayo Clinic has detected the disease years in advance by examining routine CT scans, even before any symptoms appeared.
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In a study where approximately 2,000 abdominal CT scans were examined, images previously assessed as "normal" by doctors were re-analyzed.
The artificial intelligence succeeded in detecting 73 percent of the cancer cases in these images at an early stage.
These results show that the disease can be detected at a much earlier stage.
“The opportunity to catch pancreatic cancer very early will become a reality”
Prof. Dr. Özcan Gökçe, Head of the Department of General Surgery at Yeditepe University Faculty of Medicine, stated that this development is an important turning point in the fight against pancreatic cancer:
“Pancreatic cancer is a disease that progresses insidiously. By the time most patients come to us, the disease is at an advanced stage. For years, we have been saying, ‘I wish it could have been detected earlier.’ It is a very important development that artificial intelligence can flag pancreatic cancer at an early stage during routine check-ups.”
Prof. Dr. Özcan Gökçe emphasized that the ability to intervene before the tumor becomes more prominent could significantly increase patients' life expectancy.
Goal: To detect the disease before it begins
Stating that the greatest advantage of artificial intelligence is that it examines every image with the same level of attention, Prof. Dr. Özcan Gökçe said:
“This technology should not be used to replace doctors, but as a support. It is very important that the Mayo Clinic has started testing this system on real patients. The goal is to be able to detect the disease when there are no symptoms at all. This approach could be life-saving, especially for people in the risk group. This development could radically change the treatment process by increasing the chance of early diagnosis in diseases like pancreatic cancer that are usually detected late.”