Use of Natural Language Processing To Identify Patients With Inflammatory Breast Cancer Across a Health-Care System

Authors

Ramez Kouzy
Megumi Kai
Huong T Le-Petross
Sadia Saleem
Wendy A Woodward

Publication Date

4-30-2025

Journal

JNCI Cancer Spectrum

DOI

10.1093/jncics/pkaf058

PMID

40493814

PMCID

PMC12205850

PubMedCentral® Posted Date

6-10-2025

PubMedCentral® Full Text Version

Post-print

Abstract

Early identification and referral of inflammatory breast cancer remains challenging within large health-care systems, limiting access to specialized care. We developed and evaluated an artificial intelligence-driven platform integrating natural language processing (NLP) with electronic health records to systematically identify potential inflammatory breast cancer patients across 5 campuses. Our platform analyzed 8 623 494 clinical notes, implementing a sequential review process: NLP screening followed by human validation and multidisciplinary confirmation. Initial NLP screening achieved 55.4% positive predictive value, improving to 78.4% with human-in-the-loop review. Notably, among 255 confirmed patients with inflammatory breast cancer, our system demonstrated 92.2% sensitivity, identifying 57 patients (22.4%) that traditional surveillance methods missed. Documentation patterns influenced system performance, with combined inflammatory breast cancer and T4d staging mentions showing the highest predictive value (98.2%). This proof-of-concept study demonstrates that lightweight NLP systems with targeted human review can identify rare cancer cases that may otherwise remain siloed within complex health-care networks, ultimately improving access to specialized care resources.

Keywords

Humans, Natural Language Processing, Female, Electronic Health Records, Inflammatory Breast Neoplasms, Artificial Intelligence, Early Detection of Cancer, Middle Aged, Proof of Concept Study, Predictive Value of Tests, Sensitivity and Specificity, Adult, Aged

Published Open-Access

yes

Recommended Citation

Kouzy, Ramez; Kai, Megumi; Le-Petross, Huong T; et al., "Use of Natural Language Processing To Identify Patients With Inflammatory Breast Cancer Across a Health-Care System" (2025). Faculty, Staff and Student Publications. 5150.
https://digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu/uthgsbs_docs/5150