In order to determine how aggressive a particular cancer is, pathologists, doctors who diagnose cancer through images of cells, examine tissue from the lymph nodes. According to a recent Business Insider article, Google has developed an algorithm that works in tandem with pathologists to increase accuracy. The tool is called LYmph Node Assistant, or LYNA, and it can be used to pick up cancer cells on tissue images and detect metastatic cancer 99% of the time.
An interesting note is that the researchers found that pathologists who worked with LYNA performed better than both pathologists without the tool and the tool used on its own. “This represents a demonstration that people can work really well with AI algorithms than either one alone,” said Yun Liu, a member of the Google AI team.
