Adapa Karthik, Gupta Ashu, Singh Sandeep, Kaur Hitinder, Trikha Abhinav, Sharma Ajoy, Rahul Kumar
Department of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Punjab, Chandigarh, India.
Department of Health Systems Development, World Health Organization-South East Asia Regional Office, Delhi, India.
NPJ Digit Med. 2025 Jan 2;8(1):2. doi: 10.1038/s41746-024-01368-2.
In resource-constrained countries like India, mammography-based breast screening is challenging to implement. This state-wide study, funded by the Government of Punjab, evaluated the use of Thermalytix, a low-cost, radiation-free AI tool, for breast cancer screening. Community health workers, trained to raise awareness, mobilized women aged 30 and above for screening. Thermalytix triaged women into five risk categories based on thermal images, with high-risk women recalled for diagnostic imaging. Over 18 months, 15,069 women were screened across 183 locations in Punjab. The median age was 41 years, and 69.9% were asymptomatic. Of 460 women testing positive (recall rate 3.1%), 268 underwent follow-up imaging, and 27 were confirmed with breast cancer, yielding a detection rate of 0.18%. The positive predictive value of biopsy performed was 81.81%, and the median diagnostic interval was 21 days, with therapy initiation within 30 days. The study demonstrates the potential of Thermalytix for effective population-level breast cancer screening in low-resource settings.
在印度等资源有限的国家，基于乳房X光检查的乳腺癌筛查很难实施。这项由旁遮普邦政府资助的全州范围研究，评估了Thermalytix这一低成本、无辐射的人工智能工具在乳腺癌筛查中的应用。接受过提高意识培训的社区卫生工作者动员30岁及以上的女性进行筛查。Thermalytix根据热成像将女性分为五个风险类别，高风险女性被召回进行诊断性成像检查。在18个月的时间里，旁遮普邦183个地点的15069名女性接受了筛查。中位年龄为41岁，69.9%的女性无症状。在460名检测呈阳性的女性中（召回率3.1%），268名接受了后续成像检查，27名被确诊为乳腺癌，检出率为0.18%。活检的阳性预测值为81.81%，中位诊断间隔为21天，30天内开始治疗。该研究证明了Thermalytix在资源匮乏地区进行有效的人群水平乳腺癌筛查的潜力。
