Context
Breast cancers are very frequent and hard to detect
1 in 8 women will have breast cancer: it is both the most common and the most fatal female cancer. Detected early, current management has achieved a five-year survival rate of 99%.
The basic screening test, mammography, is a real interpretive issue for radiologists. The difficulty is such that in some countries such as France, each image is read by 2 physicians.
Out of every 1000 women screened, on average only 5 will have breast cancer. But 100 will be called for further testing.
Trained radiologists are rare.
Hospitals around the world are facing a chronic shortage of specialists to perform and analyze mammograms. There is a concern that breast cancer screening programs may not be able to cope with the increasing number of women who will need mammograms in the coming years.
Technology
Therapixel is developing Artificial Intelligence (AI) to analyse screening mammograms.
Based on cases interpreted by expert radiologists and using deep learning techniques, algorithms learn to detect suspicious areas.
Combining the expertise of radiologists and the power of these algorithms makes it possible to detect breast cancer earlier and reduce the need for additional tests.
