A healthcare technology company claims that its software can identify the extent of prostate cancer more precisely than traditional medical professionals.
Avenda Health conducted a study last month involving ten doctors who evaluated 50 separate prostate cancer cases. The company’s AI software, known as Unfold AI, achieved a detection accuracy of 84.7%, whereas the participating physicians, who relied on manual detection methods, had accuracy rates ranging from 67.2% to 75.9%.
This research, conducted in collaboration with UCLA Health and published in the Journal of Urology, revealed that using AI for cancer contouring significantly enhanced predictions of tumor size, making them 45 times more accurate and consistent compared to methods that did not use AI.
Shyam Natarajan, an assistant adjunct professor of urology, surgery, and bioengineering at UCLA and the study’s senior author, noted that AI assistance improved both the accuracy and consistency of the doctors’ assessments, leading to greater agreement among physicians when utilizing the technology.
Traditionally, doctors rely on MRIs to determine tumor size, but some tumors are not visible on these scans, as pointed out by Dr. Wayne Brisbane, an assistant professor of urology at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine. He emphasized that AI can provide assistance where MRIs are insufficient.
Dr. Brisbane further stated that leveraging AI in cancer treatment has the potential to foster more effective and personalized patient care by tailoring treatments to individual needs, ultimately enhancing the likelihood of combating the disease. He added that AI could exceed human capabilities in this context.
Avenda Health’s CEO, Dr. Shyam Natarajan, expressed that it is encouraging for healthcare professionals to see such innovations substantiated through research and acknowledged by organizations like the American Medical Association (AMA).
According to the American Cancer Society, approximately one in eight men in the U.S. will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime, and one in 44 will succumb to the disease. This year, it is anticipated that there will be 299,010 new prostate cancer diagnoses in the U.S., with 35,250 fatalities related to the illness.