WEDNESDAY, Oct. 29, 2025 (HealthDay News) -- An artificial intelligence (AI) assistant for basal cell carcinoma (BCC) diagnosis with line-field confocal optical coherence tomography (LC-OCT) improves dermatologists' diagnostic performance, according to a study published online Oct. 19 in the Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology & Venereology.

Sébastien Fischman, from Damae Medical in Paris, and colleagues presented a real-time AI assistant for BCC diagnosis with LC-OCT. The model's effectiveness was quantified when used by dermatologists with different levels of expertise, and its performance was compared to that of traditional methods and unassisted LC-OCT in a retrospective cohort study. The study involved 43 dermatologists in a double-rounded quiz on 200 equivocal BCC lesions.

The researchers found significant improvement in dermatologists' diagnostic performance for detection of BCC with AI-assisted LC-OCT (+25.8 and +16.8 points in sensitivity and specificity, respectively, compared with clinical and dermoscopic images). The benefit was more apparent in those with less LC-OCT experience, effectively bridging a two-year gap of expertise.

"Our research highlights the benefit of AI assistance for all user levels, with novices and intermediates improving the most on a large range of pathologies. It also boosts dermatologists' confidence without slowing the diagnostic process," the authors write.

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