AI found to not speed up lung cancer diagnosis—AI alone is not enough

Summary

A recent interesting study looking at AI tools to diagnose lung cancer highlights that AI does not change diagnosis speed. However, the care pathway was not changed and perhaps the most obvious finding is that care pathways must be optimised if AI is to highlight cases where specialists should take a second look.

Content

A large NHS trial found that using AI to flag abnormal chest X-rays for faster review did not meaningfully speed up lung cancer diagnosis overall. It did shorten the time for radiologists to report X-rays, but delays later in the pathway, such as CT scans, clinic appointments and follow-up processes, meant patients were not diagnosed sooner.

The study analysed 93,326 chest X-rays across five NHS trusts and identified 558 lung cancer cases. Median time to diagnosis was 44 days with AI prioritisation versus 46 days without, which was not significant. Referral rates, treatment start times and cancer stage at diagnosis were also similar between groups.

Researchers said the main problem is not image reporting but the wider NHS pathway. They highlighted one especially important finding: patients whose X-rays were flagged by AI but not by radiologists had much longer waits for diagnosis, suggesting this group may deserve closer study.

The authors conclude that AI alone is not enough—improving outcomes would require redesigning the full care pathway so an AI alert triggers rapid follow-up actions like CT booking and specialist review.