An AI healthcare company has announced that its software can identify prostate cancer more accurately than medical professionals.
Avenda Health conducted a study with ten doctors who each evaluated 50 prostate cancer cases. The company’s Unfold AI software achieved an accuracy rate of 84.7% in detecting cancer, while the physicians’ manual assessments ranged between 67.2% and 75.9%.
The research, conducted in conjunction with UCLA Health and published in the Journal of Urology, also revealed that AI-assisted cancer contouring produced predictions of tumor size that were 45 times more accurate and consistent than those made without AI.
According to Shyam Natarajan, assistant adjunct professor at UCLA and senior author of the study, AI assistance resulted in improved accuracy and consistency among doctors, who showed increased agreement when using the AI tools.
Doctors typically rely on MRIs to gauge tumor size; however, as noted by Dr. Wayne Brisbane, an assistant professor of urology at UCLA, some tumors are invisible on MRIs. In these instances, AI can provide essential assistance.
Brisbane asserted that integrating AI into cancer treatment could enhance patient care by allowing for more personalized and effective treatment options that align better with individual needs, stating that AI can “go beyond human ability.”
Dr. Shyam Natarajan, CEO of Avenda Health, expressed his optimism about the validation of such innovations through research, highlighting its recognition by the American Medical Association.
The American Cancer Society estimates that approximately 1 in 8 men in the U.S. will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during their lifetime, with 1 in 44 men expected to succumb to the disease. In 2023, an estimated 299,010 new cases of prostate cancer will be diagnosed in the U.S., resulting in 35,250 deaths from the disease.