AI can identify women at risk of breast cancer years in advance, reveals study
Artificial intelligence is able to identify women who have an elevated risk of developing breast cancer several years before it is diagnosed, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (FHI) said on Tuesday.
Five researchers from FHI, the University of California and the University of Washington were given access to a commercially available AI programme to retroactively analyse the mammographies of 116,495 women who took part in a Norwegian detection programme between 2004 and 2018.
In total, 1,607 of the women developed breast cancer.
The algorithm was able to predict which women ran a higher risk of developing breast cancer, and even identify which breast was at risk, four to six years before a diagnosis.
"We noted that the breast which developed cancer had an AI score about twice as high as the other breast," said Solveig Hofvind, who heads the detection programme and the AI project.
"The study shows that the AI algorithms already available on the market can be used to develop more personalised detection programmes," she said.
AI could be used for early detection of breast cancer, to reduce costs and better target at-risk populations, FHI said.
According to the World Health Organisation, 670,000 women died of breast cancer in 2022, the most common form of cancer among women in most countries.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Middle East Eye
20-05-2025
- Middle East Eye
US: UCLA student hospitalised during hunger strike for Gaza
A University of California, Los Angeles, student was hospitalised after a hunger strike in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza who are on the brink of famine after Israel implemented an 11-week aid blockade of food, water, and humanitarian aid into the enclave. Palestinian Lebanese film student, Maya Abdullah, 23, ended up in hospital on 18 May after she fainted on the ninth day of her hunger strike, while seeking to pressure her university to divest from Israel. 'On day nine of my hunger strike, I unexpectedly passed out at my school and had to be rushed to the hospital,' she said in a video on Instagram. 'Before I passed out, I was walking in a protest, and I felt light-headed, but I hadn't felt I was going to pass out. When we got to school, I walked for 10 mins before I hit the ground. I was very lucky to be with friends who called the ambulance immediately. When they found me, I was choking on my vomit. I didn't have anything in my stomach, so it was just bile. At the hospital, they found my resting heart rate 40 percent higher than a normal person's. They were scared I had done some damage to my heart.' Abdullah said that UCLA administration did not respond to notice of her hospitalisation. She said that being hospitalised and not having a conversation with the administration was 'disheartening'. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters But she believed that her journey was one step towards students achieving the student's goals. 'I think it's a step towards divestment. It's a bunch of many different things.' 'Deafening silence of indifference' At Stanford University, there are currently 24 students and three faculty members on hunger strike - 15 of them started their strike on 12 May, while another 12 joined on 19 May. A hunger striker and organiser who did not wish to be named said that the strike was going better than he had anticipated. 'I've been feeling strange. I've been feeling dizzy. The most difficult days were four and five. Before we started, we were concerned by how difficult it would be. But it hasn't been as difficult as a lot of us feared it would be,' he told Middle East Eye. The hunger strikers have been holding a community gathering every evening on campus and he said that having community members who were supportive had 'strengthened his will'. He explained that he had started the strike to bring attention to the hunger and starvation in Gaza to the administration and student body. He said they did the same for those living in tents in Rafah through the encampments last year. Famine imminent in Gaza if Israel doesn't lift blockade, hunger monitor warns Read More » Students' health and vitals were monitored daily to evaluate whether it was safe to continue, as fasting affected everyone differently. He said that on Monday evening, the administration had stopped by the White Plaza, where students were congregating, and told the students the event was in violation of university rules and they might threaten Students for Justice in Palestine, who are organising the hunger strike, with potential disciplinary action. Assistant professor Natalie Zahr, from the department of psychiatry and behavioural science, released a statement on 12 May about her intentions to join the strike. 'I know words have power, but words feel futile as the slaughter continues to escalate…. So many months of horror. With no end in sight. Still surrounded by a deafening silence of indifference. 'I've stayed awake so many nights thinking about the mothers of Palestine. Especially the mothers. What would I do if my child was hungry? What desperate acts would [I]commit to feed my son, to keep him safe?" An email sent by the university to students on Tuesday, and seen by MEE, urged the students to 'consider forms of protest that do not endanger your health' and said that 'your request for further engagement on these topics as a condition of ending your hunger strike will not be granted'. The university did not respond to MEE's request for comment by the time of publication. Frustration and lack of engagement Seven students and one staff member are on hunger strike at Yale University. Six students started their hunger strike on 10 May to pressure the university to divest from Israel and in solidarity with people in Gaza. They were joined by a staff member on Wednesday and another undergraduate student on Saturday. The students have been gathering outside Sheffield-Sterling-Strathcoma (SSS) Hall on campus every day. On Wednesday, dean of students Melanie Boyd threatened the strikers and supporters with disciplinary action and arrest for congregating inside the building, garnering complaints from students, parents, and alumni. An undergraduate student who is a spokesperson for the hunger strikers and asked to remain anonymous said, 'As a collective, they've lost a total of 70 pounds. They have experienced serious health issues. Some of their glucose levels have been seriously low." She says they are suffering from other issues like hypertension, nausea and a lack of sleep. 'They have expressed frustration at harassment from the university and a lack of engagement from the administration' - Spokesperson for hunger strikers at Yale University 'They have expressed frustration at harassment from the university and a lack of engagement from the administration,' she told MEE. She added they had been touched by the 'incredible shows of solidarity' after the Nakba march on Saturday had gone through the Yale campus, stopped at SSS and was attended by locals and students. She said that the dean of Yale College, Pericles Lewis, had offered to meet with the students on Thursday. 'We talked for an hour. We asked him to convey our demands for divestment to the president. He kept urging the hunger strikers to stop without respecting or honouring the reasons they were doing it." The dean told students that Yale president Maurie McInnis wouldn't meet with them because doing so would set a precedent. "It was very revealing of how the university thinks in terms of cost-benefit calculations, rather than thinking of their students as human beings.' The university did not respond to MEE's request for comments by the time of publication. Refusal More than 30 California State University (CSU) students started a hunger strike on 5 May. Some are still participating, while others have stopped. The students were also calling for CSU to divest from companies that provide weapons and surveillance technology to Israel, and said they had committed to the hunger strike after calls from students at Birzeit University in the occupied West Bank. The students from CSU Long Beach, Sacramento State, and San Jose State were urging CSU to follow in the footsteps of San Francisco State University, which divested last year from weapons manufacturers Lockheed Martin and Leonardo, data analysis company Palantir, and construction company Caterpillar, following a student Gaza solidarity encampment last spring. After hunger striking for 12 days, students from CSU Long Beach (CSULB) were able to secure a meeting with university president Jane Conoley and vice president Beth Lesen on Friday. According to striker Marcus Bode, Conoley refused to end the university's partnership with Boeing, Raytheon, and Northrop Grumman, both in terms of funding and faculty projects. A statement from CSULB to MEE said: 'President Conoley and Vice President Lesen met last week with those students indicating that they are participating in a hunger strike. President Conoley and Vice President Lesen listened to the students' concerns, shared perspectives, and discussed common ground. During the strike, university representatives have been in touch with the students to check on their health and encourage them to consider choosing from a variety of safer ways to have their voices heard.' CSULB ended their hunger strike on Friday and will be preparing a strategy for the year ahead.
Khaleej Times
22-04-2025
- Khaleej Times
Queen Sonja of Norway in hospital after suffering breathing problems
Queen Sonja of Norway, 87, was admitted to an Oslo hospital late Monday following breathing difficulties, the royal palace announced. "The Queen was transported by medical helicopter from the royal chalet in Sikkilsdalen, where the royal couple were spending the Easter holidays," the palace said in a statement. Since 1924, the Norwegian royal family has spent most of its Easter holidays at the chalet, according to the NTB news agency. Queen Sonja was briefly hospitalised in January after experiencing cardiac fibrillation, a rapid and irregular heartbeat. She then had a pacemaker installed, a procedure the palace described as "successful." Her husband King Harald is Europe's oldest reigning monarch at 87. He also had a pacemaker inserted last March after contracting an infection during a private vacation in Malaysia.
Al Etihad
05-04-2025
- Al Etihad
Four space tourists return to Earth on private SpaceX flight
5 Apr 2025 12:06 CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AP)Four space tourists who orbited the north and south poles returned to Earth on Friday, splashing down in the Pacific to end their privately funded polar investor Chun Wang chartered a SpaceX flight for himself and three others in a Dragon capsule that was outfitted with a domed window that provided 360-degree views of the polar caps and everything in between. Wang declined to say how much he paid for the 3 1/2-day quartet, who rocketed from NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Monday night, returned off the Southern California coast. It was the first human spaceflight to circle the globe above the poles and the first Pacific splashdown for a space crew in 50 Chinese-born Wang, now a citizen of Malta, invited Norwegian filmmaker Jannicke Mikkelsen, German robotics researcher Rabea Rogge and Australian polar guide Eric Philips, all of whom shared stunning vistas during their voyage.'It is so epic because it is another kind of desert, so it just goes on and on and on all the way,' Rogge said in a video posted by Wang on X while gazing down from packed the capsule with camera equipment and spent much of her time behind the lens. All four suffered from space motion sickness after reaching orbit, according to Wang. But by the time they woke up on day two, they felt fine and cranked open the window cover right above the South Pole, he said via X. Besides documenting the poles from 430 kilometres up, Wang and his crew took the first medical X-rays in space as part of a test and conducted two dozen other science experiments. They named their trip Fram2 after the Norwegian sailing ship that carried explorers to the poles more than a century ago. A bit of the original ship's wooden deck accompanied the crew to space. Their medical tests continued at splashdown. All four got out of the capsule on their own, heaving bags of equipment so researchers could see how steady returning space crews are on their feet. They pumped their fists in jubilation.
