By Diagnostics World News Staff
September 11, 2025 | A clinical case study from Qure.ai and Hacettepe University, Turkey, delivered at the IASLC World Conference on Lung Cancer 2025 in Barcelona, shows that Artificial Intelligence (AI) can detect potentially malignant pulmonary nodules on routine chest X-rays, even when the imaging was ordered for unrelated, non-respiratory conditions.
This suggests that digital pathology can provide an early warning system in countries without formal lung cancer screening programs or complement CT-based screening programs by going beyond smoker/ex-smoker cohorts. By expanding and improving the number of early-detected lung cancer patients, survival rates will increase through early surgical or pharmaceutical interventions.
“By finding high-risk nodules earlier and diagnose lung cancer at early stages, AI not only improves, but also accelerates diagnosis and treatment,” said Dr. Deniz Koksal at Hacettepe University in Ankara, Turkey, in a press release. “This enables early surgical interventions while reducing the need for more expensive treatments such as targeted therapies and immunotherapies.”
The group reported three patient cases from Hacettepe University in Ankara, Turkey, using data from the CREATE study—a coordinated, five-country research initiative.
They highlighted three patient cases in which the qXR from Qure.ai was used to scan routine chest-X rays from February 2024 -November 2024. qXR is s a deep learning based algorithm that can detect lung nodules on posteroanterior (PA) chest X-rays, providing pre-read assistance in <1 minute with detailed lung findings.
The three highlighted cases showed how AI-flagged suspicious nodules in patients with no prior suspicion of lung cancer. The patients included a 57-year-old male who received a chest X-ray as a routine test prior to treatment for ulcerative colitis in the gastroenterology clinic; a 64-year-old male who had a chest X-ray upon arrival at the Emergency Room with fever; and a 65-year-old female who received a chest X-ray as part of a routine smoking cessation program.
The AI-powered finding enabled timely referral for CT imaging confirmation and biopsy, confirming early-stage lung cancer in all cases. Each patient underwent curative surgical intervention with favorable outcomes.
“AI-powered chest X-rays can identify potentially malignant pulmonary nodules incidentally on chest X-rays obtained for non-respiratory conditions,” the researchers concluded in their presentation. They further posited that routine AI reads of chest X-rays could act as a safety net in settings with limited radiologist availability or high workloads; could offer a screening opportunity independent of specific criteria such as age, smoking history; and could enable early detection of high-risk nodules in countries without lung cancer screening programs.”
“This new evidence presented at the World Conference of Lung Cancer has the potential to position every chest X-ray as a chance to save a life,” states Prashant Warier, Founder and CEO of Qure.ai in the same press release. “AI can help to expand the early lung cancer detection funnel by identifying high-risk lung nodules that would otherwise go unnoticed until it’s too late.”