A hybrid computer vision model to predict lung cancer in diverse populations

PURPOSE Disparities of lung cancer incidence exist in Black populations and screening criteria underserve Black populations due to disparately elevated risk in the screening eligible population. Prediction models that integrate clinical and imaging-based features to individualize lung cancer risk is a potential means to mitigate these disparities. PATIENTS AND METHODS This Multicenter (NLST) and catchment population based (UIH, urban and suburban Cook County) cross-sectional study utilized participants at risk of lung cancer with available lung CT imaging and follow up between the years 2015 and 2024. 53,452 in NLST and 11,654 in UIH were included based on age and tobacco use based risk factors for lung cancer. Cohorts were used for training and testing of deep and machine learning models using clinical features alone or combined with CT image features (hybrid computer vision).

An optimized 7 clinical feature model achieved ROC-AUC values ranging 0.64-0.67 in NLST and 0.60-0.65 in UIH cohorts across multiple years. Incorporation of imaging features to form a hybrid computer vision model significantly improved ROC-AUC values to 0.78-0.91 in NLST but deteriorated in UIH with ROC-AUC values of 0.68-0.80, attributable to Black participants where ROC-AUC values ranged from 0.63-0.72 across multiple years. Retraining the hybrid computer vision model by incorporating Black and other participants from the UIH cohort improved performance with ROC-AUC values of 0.70-0.87 in a held out UIH test set.

Hybrid computer vision predicted risk with improved accuracy compared to clinical risk models alone. However, potential biases in image training data reduced model generalizability in Black participants. Performance was improved upon retraining with a subset of the UIH cohort, suggesting that inclusive training and validation datasets can minimize racial disparities. Future studies incorporating vision models trained on representative data sets may demonstrate improved health equity upon clinical use. Competing Interest Statement A.A.S. and A.J.Z. have filed an invention disclosure related to this work. A.A.S. was recently employed by Tempus AI., Inc. and holds an equity interest. A.A.K. and V.K.G. have equity interests in Tempus AI. Funding Statement This study was funded by the UIC AI.Health4All Center for Health Equity using Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: IRB of University of Illinois at Chicago gave ethical approval for this work under protocol numbers listed in this manuscript. I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable. Yes Footnotes Additional results and analyses have been added. Data Availability All data and code used to generate figures and tables in this manuscript will be made available in a Zenodo repository upon the publication of this manuscript. Sharing of individual level deidentified data is subject to review and approval of the University of Illinois Chicago Institutional Review Board and will be distributed following the University of Illinois Chicago INDIGO repository standard practices under a Material Transfer Agreement.