The scan already knew: an AI spots pancreatic cancer's whisper 475 days before diagnosis

Pancreatic cancer is usually found late, because its earliest signs are easy to miss — even on a scan taken for something else. A new AI system called REDMOD, reported in the journal Gut, looked back at CT scans from 219 people who later developed the disease and 1,243 who stayed cancer-free. On an independent test set it picked out 73% of the future cancer cases, compared with about 39% spotted by experienced radiologists, and it raised the flag a median of 475 days — well over a year — before diagnosis. For scans taken more than two years early, it still caught 68%, against 23% for human readers. The honest caveat: this was a look back at old scans, not a live screening programme, so trials must still prove that acting on the signal helps patients live longer.

SDG 3 · Good health and well-being — Mechanism: tech innovation