AI apps accurately diagnose pigmented skin cancer

Editor's Note

A new study analyzed the accuracy of diagnosis and therapy recommendations of two AI-based smartphone apps compared to recommendations coming from doctors. The findings were published in The Lancet Digital Health in October 2023. 

 In the study, the AI-assisted app was compared with both medical experts and less experienced physicians looking for changes suspicious of skin cancer and for patients with many moles. Among the findings:

• 172 suspicious pigmented lesions (of which 84 were malignant) were examined in 124 patients
• 5,696 pigmented lesions (of which 18 were malignant) were analyzed in 66 patients
• the app made similarly good diagnostic decisions as experts in diagnosing cancer, but when it came to treatment decisions, the experts outperformed the AI.

Based on the findings, the researchers concluded that mobile phone AI apps can be an inexpensive and accurate tool for diagnosing pigmented skin cancer.