AT A GLANCE

A new study published in Digestive and Liver Disease concludes that artificial intelligence (AI) systems have the potential to significantly improve the detection rates of precancerous conditions, especially among endoscopists with less experience.¹

As part of their prospective, randomized, pretest and post-test, single-center clinical trial, study authors Xu et al. assessed the effect of using an AI system in the detection of gastrointestinal precancerous lesions. Specifically, the authors compared detection rates of gastric precancerous lesions and intestinal adenomas between baseline and post-intervention phase among traditional digestive endoscopy cases (control groups i and ii and experimental group i) and AI-assisted endoscopy cases (experimental group ii). The effect of AI on the rate of detection by physicians of varying seniority levels was also analyzed.

According to the authors, receiving assistance from AI significantly increased the rates of detecting intestinal metaplasia (experimental group ii vs. control group ii: 14.23% vs. 9.15%), atrophy (experimental group ii vs. control group ii: 22.76% vs. 17.28%), and intestinal adenomas (experimental group ii vs. control group ii: 48.52% vs. 24.58%).

When considering physician detection rates, the improvement among junior doctors was particularly notable, with significant increases in their detection rates of intestinal metaplasia (experimental group ii vs. control group ii: 14.39% vs. 9.09%), atrophy (experimental group ii vs. control group ii: 22.04% vs. 15.31%), and intestinal adenomas (experimental group ii vs. control group ii: 45.18% vs. 29.27%).

“AI systems have the potential to significantly improve the detection rates of precancerous conditions, particularly among less-experienced endoscopists. This advancement can lead to more accurate and appropriate follow-up and review strategies for patients, ultimately reducing the risk of missed early cancer diagnoses,” conclude the authors.

Reference

1.     Xu Z, Li Y, Su P, et al. Artificial intelligence system improves the quality of digestive endoscopy: A prospective pretest and post-test single-center clinical trial. Dig Liver Dis. 2025;57(9):1830–1837.