A new artificial intelligence (AI) model can help doctors detect pancreatic cancer up to three years before physicians typically spot tumors on CT scans, a new study suggests. The program, described April 28 in the journal Gut , was used to analyze almost 2,000 CT scans that had been previously cleared as "normal," bearing no signs of disease. The tool identified tiny irregularities in the structure of the pancreas that later developed into tumor tissue. A chance to detect cancer early Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest cancers . "The five-year survival rate [in the U.S.] is about 12% to 13% because of our inability to detect it at a time when therapeutic options could work their magic," study co-author Dr. Ajit Goenka , a radiologist and nuclear medicine specialist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, told Live Science. The early stages of pancreatic cancer often don't trigger any symptoms, so the disease is often advanced at the point of diagnosis.…