AI suggests rare disease, biopsy overturns lung cancer diagnosis
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After a software engineer's younger brother was diagnosed with brain metastases from lung cancer, he used AI to interpret the medical records, blood tests, and imaging reports line by line, and pressed for the basis of each possibility. The AI repeatedly suggested another possibility: neurosarcoidosis involving the central nervous system, and the family history happened to include sarcoidosis. Although the neurosurgeon called the disease's appearance in that location in the brain "impossible," multiple biopsies ultimately confirmed neurosarcoidosis, and after treatment the brain lesions shrank by about 75%.
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- Hacker News AIWhat I Learned Using AI When My Brother Got Sick
A software developer describes using AI to understand his brother's medical records after a stage 4 lung cancer diagnosis, which led him to research neurosarcoidosis, a condition that runs in their family and can mimic cancer on scans. A neurosurgeon called that possibility "impossible," but multiple biopsies later confirmed neurosarcoidosis, and the brain masses shrank about 75 percent after treatment began. He argues AI should do the groundwork of reading records and research while doctors retain judgment and final say, and advises asking for reasoning and sources, removing identifying details before uploading anything, and bringing findings to doctors as questions.
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