Potential for AI as first reader in lung cancer screening

To retrospectively assess the agreement between human and automated AI-based readings for low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) outcomes according to LungRADS v1.1 in lung cancer screening (LCS); to test the diagnostic performance of both readings.

We included 4104 baseline LDCTs from the BioMILD trial. Original readings were retrospectively classified into "negative" (LungRADSv1.1 categories 1, 2) and "positive" (categories 3, 4) by a radiologist and analyzed by AI software for category assignment. Diagnosis of lung cancer (LC) at 2 years served as reference standard to assess sensitivity, specificity, negative predictive value (NPV), and positive predictive value (PPV) of both human and AI. Agreement between readers was measured by the k-Cohen Index with Fleiss-Cohen weights (K_w) with 95 % CI.

Median age of participants was 60 years; 60.8 % were male and 79.2 % current smokers; 68/4104 (1.7 %) were diagnosed with LC; 6/68 (8.8 %) and 7/68 (10.3 %) LDCT were classified as negative by AI and human reading, respectively. The agreement between human and AI readings for negative and positive LDCTs was 83.5 % (K_w 0.47; 95 %CI: 0.43-0.50). Sensitivity and specificity were 91.2 % and 75.7 % for AI, and 89.7 % and 90.0 % for human reading (p-value 0.5637 and < 0.0001). PPV and NPV were 6.0 % and 99.8 % for AI, and 13.1 % and 99.8 % for human reading (p-value < 0.0001 and 0.9351). The expected reduction in LDCT reading workload when using AI as first reader was 74.7 %.

AI reading showed comparable sensitivity but lower specificity than human reading. High NPV of AI may support its use as a first reader in LCS.