Age Prediction in Breast Cancer Risk Stratification : Additive Value of Age Prediction on Healthy Mammography Images in Breast Cancer Risk Models

Abstract: Breast cancer is the most common cancer type for women worldwide. Early detection is key to improve prognosis and treatment success. A cost-efficient way of finding breast cancer early is mammography screening on a population basis. A major issue with mammography screening is in-between screening cancers. One method of targeting this issue is calculating breast cancer risk stratification on healthy mammography scans, however, this method is as of today insufficient. One proposed addition to refine risk stratification is to use Artificial Intelligence guided age prediction. The aim of this study was to investigate to what extent there is an additive value of age prediction on breast cancer risk stratification. Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) were used to train a model on an age prediction task using healthy mammography scans from the Cohort of Screen-Aged Women. The predicted ages and delta ages, calculated as predicted age minus chronological age, were then added to a logistic regression task together with, and without, the known risk factor mammographic density. The results showed an increase in breast cancer detection with the risk model incorporating age prediction for some age groups. This suggests age prediction using CNNs might increase breast cancer detection. More studies are needed to confirm these findings.