AI spotted pancreatic cancer on scans that looked normal, over a year early
Mayo Clinic researchers ran their AI over nearly 2,000 routine CT scans, including older scans from people later diagnosed with pancreatic cancer that had looked clear at the time. It caught about 73% of those hidden cases, roughly 16 months before diagnosis on average.
Why it matters
Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest because it usually hides until it has spread. Catching it while it's still treatable is the whole game, and this works on scans people already get for other reasons.
Sixteen months is a lot of time to give someone.