Google licensed its AI research model for breast cancer screening to iCAD

Google announced today that it had licensed its AI research model for breast cancer detection to medical technology company iCAD. This is the first time Google has licensed the technology, hoping it will eventually lead to more accurate detection and risk assessment of breast cancer.

The two companies aim to eventually implement the technology in real-world clinical settings, aiming for a "2024 release," Nicole Linton, Google communications manager, told The Verge in an email. Commercial deployment, however, still depends on continued research and testing success. "We will move deliberately and test things as we go," Linton said in the email.

The partnership development on Google's previous work to improve breast cancer detection. In 2020, Google researchers published a paper in the journal Nature shared that their artificial intelligence system outperformed several radiologists in identifying symptoms of breast cancer. In addition, the model reduced false negatives by up to 9.4 per cent and reduced false positives by up to 5.7 per cent among thousands of mammograms studied.

iCAD plans to comprise Google's mammography AI research model into existing iCAD tools. The first is its "ProFound AI" tool that analyzes images from digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT), an advanced imaging technique sometimes called "3D mammography." The tool scans DBT images to look for malignant soft tissue densities and calcifications. iCAD also plans to use Google's model with its risk assessment tool, which the company says provides a personalized estimate of breast cancer risk tailored to each person.

The hope is that AI can become a tool to help radiologists and their patients. In general, medical experts approach AI with caution. There were a few cases in Google's 2020 research where radiologists detected cancer that the model didn't initially see.