A healthcare technology company has claimed that its software can identify prostate cancer more accurately than medical professionals.
Avenda Health conducted a study last month involving ten doctors who evaluated 50 prostate cancer cases each. The company’s Unfold AI software achieved an accuracy rate of 84.7% in detecting cancer, whereas the doctors’ manual detection rates ranged from 67.2% to 75.9%.
This research, which was carried out in collaboration with UCLA Health and published in the Journal of Urology, also revealed that using AI for cancer contouring resulted in predictions of tumor size being 45 times more accurate and consistent compared to traditional methods.
Shyam Natarajan, assistant adjunct professor of urology, surgery, and bioengineering at UCLA and senior author of the study, noted that the integration of AI assistance made physicians more accurate and consistent in their assessments, leading to greater agreement among them.
Doctors commonly rely on MRI scans to determine tumor sizes, yet some tumors are not visible in these scans, according to Dr. Wayne Brisbane, an assistant professor of urology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He explained that AI can assist in cases where MRI fails to provide clear information.
Brisbane emphasized that the integration of AI into cancer treatment could enhance personalized care for patients, tailoring treatments more effectively to individual needs and improving success rates in combating the disease. He asserted that AI has the potential to surpass human capabilities.
Dr. Shyam Natarajan, CEO of Avenda Health, stated that it is encouraging for physicians to see such innovations validated through research and acknowledged by the American Medical Association.
According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 1 in 8 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during their lives, and 1 in 44 men are expected to succumb to the disease. It is projected that in the US, there will be 299,010 new cases of prostate cancer this year, with 35,250 fatalities arising from it.