NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) — Each year, millions of women over 40 get breast screenings, and then they wait for their results. It is a nerve-wracking process knowing a doctor is determining if there are any signs of breast cancer. 

So, how does artificial intelligence play into this? We asked Dr. Kiran Sheikh, a radiologist at Yale Cancer Center and Smilow Cancer Hospital. 

“Instead of just me evaluating it, I have a second set of eyes, and so it lets me know that I’m fully evaluating the mammogram and that if there’s something subtle that if I have not picked it up that our software tool can see it,” Sheikh said.

She said that Yale does not use AI for breast imaging yet, but it is used to detect head, neck and prostate cancers. 

Dr. Sanjay Aneja, a Yale Cancer Center co-investigator, explained how AI could be utilized in cancer care.

“Specifically, we are interested in using some of the computer vision technology that you see on your iPhone and your computer screen to help better analyze cancer images,” Aneja said.

His group at Yale works on training the AI algorithm to learn and detect signs of cancer. Aneja is part of a team that recently received a prestigious research grant for the use of AI in breast cancer from the American Cancer Society and the venture capital firm Yosemite.

He says that some breast cancers are less aggressive, and AI could help experts determine whether a watch approach is appropriate. 

“The AI tools are actually in a sense a database of all these images and that we’ve kind of detected these abnormalities and submitted them into these databases,” says Dr. Aneja.

An extensive study done in Sweden on 80,000 women found that AI did, in fact, detect more cancer, but Sheikh points out we have a more diverse population in the U.S. 

There is a concern about unnecessary callbacks and imaging, which can be stressful and costly. 

Yale has announced a $150 million investment in AI in the coming years over many departments.