Cleveland medical centre activates AI for early lung cancer identification

University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center (UH), Ohio, is collaborating with healthcare AI company Qure.ai to deploy chest x-ray AI to support earlier identification of lung cancers. Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the USA. Guidelines recommend low dose CT lung
cancer screening as the standard of care for high risk individuals. However, uptake remains low nationally.

Division chief of cardiothoracic imaging and modality director of diagnostic radiography Dr Amit Gupta said: “One way to enhance lung cancer detection is by identifying early stage lung nodules and cancers incidentally when patients undergo chest x-rays for other medical reasons during hospital admissions.”

However, detecting pulmonary nodules on plain x-rays remains a challenge, as these subtle findings can easily be overlooked. UH is conducting a clinical trial to investigate the efficacy of the qXR AI algorithm, a tool designed to enhance the detection of pulmonary nodules on chest x-rays, by comparing its ability to detect pulmonary nodules to a radiologist’s interpretation of those same chest x-rays.

The trial will evaluate how many patients require follow-up CT scans or biopsies, and how many more lung cancer cases are diagnosed earlier using AI. The hope is that this clinical trial will not only advance early detection but also drive meaningful transformation in lung cancer surveillance.

Read this report on page 11 of the July 2025 issue of RAD Magazine.