Chest X-Ray CAD Tags Missed Lung Tumors

A new chest X-ray computer-aided detection (CAD) system identifies solitary pulmonary nodules that may represent early-stage lung cancer on an existing chest X-ray. This improved performance demonstrates a 73% reduction in false-positive marks and 50% higher relative sensitivity compared to the original technology.

Riverain Medical (Dayton, OH, USA) announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted approval for the newest version of the OnGuard chest X-ray CAD technology.

When lung cancer is detected early, five-year survival rates triple. Multiple studies have demonstrated that OnGuard can detect 37-50% of lung tumors that were missed in the initial interpretation. "Our published studies demonstrate that OnGuard can detect up to 50% of the lung cancers that were missed in the initial interpretation,” said Dr. Charles White, professor and vice chairman of radiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (Baltimore, MD, USA). "OnGuard provides physicians with a tool to help identify suspicious nodules in the lungs earlier.”

OnGuard uses pattern recognition and machine-learning technology to detect nodules. Well centered, scaled markers are then placed around regions of interest that may be early-stage lung cancer. Because OnGuard utilizes the existing digital chest X-ray, there is no additional radiation dose, patient procedure, hardware, or stand-alone workstation needed to integrate the technology into any radiology department.

"OnGuard can make a difference in the fight against lung cancer,” explained Diane Hirakawa, CEO and chairman of Riverain Medical. "This technology can improve the detection of lung cancer in its earliest stages when treatments are most effective.”

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