To make a diagnosis of lung cancer, radiologists, who must read radiographs accurately can fall victim to a psychological phenomenon known as inattentional blindness.
In the classic demonstration of this phenomenon, a psychologist instructs a subject to watch a video of children passing a basketball and to count the number of passes. At the conclusion of the video, the psychologist then asks, “Did you notice the gorilla walking across the screen?” Because the subjects are so focused on the task at hand, most do not notice the gorilla.
Radiologists were tested with images similar to the ones shown above.
Even expert radiologists are susceptible to this gradual loss of focus, and a lack of appreciation of this phenomenon may jeopardize patients. In patients with lung cancer, researchers Drew et al1presented radiologists with computed tomography (CT) scan results, and instructed the radiologists to search for lung nodules on a set of 5 cross-sectional scans. For each of the 24 radiologists tested, the last of the 5 scans contained the image of a gorilla. Of the 24 radiologists tested, 20 failed to notice the gorilla. Consequently, because it is possible for radiologists to miss important abnormalities, development of a blood test to detect lung cancer would help protect patients from observational error.
Gholam Analyzes Treatment Outcomes for Advanced HCC in Child-Pugh B Population
April 28th 2024During a live Community Case Forum event in partnership with the Tennessee Oncology Practice Society, Pierre Gholam, MD, examined the current state of treatment for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, looking in particular at what data is available for those with Child-Pugh B and C status who have poorer outcomes and have limited data from prospective clinical trials.
Read More