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. 2024 Jan;6(1):e230100.
doi: 10.1148/rycan.230100.

Disparities in the Demographic Composition of The Cancer Imaging Archive

Aidan Dulaney  1 , John Virostko  1
Affiliations

Disparities in the Demographic Composition of The Cancer Imaging Archive

Aidan Dulaney et al. Radiol Imaging Cancer. 2024 Jan.

Abstract

Purpose To characterize the demographic distribution of The Cancer Imaging Archive (TCIA) studies and compare them with those of the U.S. cancer population. Materials and Methods In this retrospective study, data from TCIA studies were examined for the inclusion of demographic information. Of 189 studies in TCIA up until April 2023, a total of 83 human cancer studies were found to contain supporting demographic data. The median patient age and the sex, race, and ethnicity proportions of each study were calculated and compared with those of the U.S. cancer population, provided by the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention U.S. Cancer Statistics Data Visualizations Tool. Results The median age of TCIA patients was found to be 6.84 years lower than that of the U.S. cancer population (P = .047) and contained more female than male patients (53% vs 47%). American Indian and Alaska Native, Black or African American, and Hispanic patients were underrepresented in TCIA studies by 47.7%, 35.8%, and 14.7%, respectively, compared with the U.S. cancer population. Conclusion The results demonstrate that the patient demographics of TCIA data sets do not reflect those of the U.S. cancer population, which may decrease the generalizability of artificial intelligence radiology tools developed using these imaging data sets. Keywords: Ethics, Meta-Analysis, Health Disparities, Cancer Health Disparities, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Race, Ethnicity, Sex, Age, Bias Published under a CC BY 4.0 license.

Keywords: Age; Artificial Intelligence; Bias; Cancer Health Disparities; Ethics; Ethnicity; Health Disparities; Machine Learning; Meta-Analysis; Race; Sex.

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Conflict of interest statement

Disclosures of conflicts of interest: A.D. No relevant relationships. J.V. No relevant relationships.

Figures

None
Graphical abstract
Flowchart of inclusion of studies for analysis. TCIA = The Cancer Imaging Archive.
Figure 1:
Flowchart of inclusion of studies for analysis. TCIA = The Cancer Imaging Archive.
Scatterplots of TCIA study demographic reporting over time for (A) sex, (B) age, (C) race, and (D) ethnicity. Availability of all demographic information increased between 2011 and 2023. TCIA = The Cancer Imaging Archive.
Figure 2:
Scatterplots of TCIA study demographic reporting over time for (A) sex, (B) age, (C) race, and (D) ethnicity. Availability of all demographic information increased between 2011 and 2023. TCIA = The Cancer Imaging Archive.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

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