A healthcare technology company has announced that its AI-powered software can detect prostate cancer with greater precision than human doctors. Avenda Health’s Unfold AI software achieved an accuracy rate of 84.7% in identifying cancer, significantly outperforming the accuracy of ten doctors who assessed the same 50 cases, whose performance ranged from 67.2% to 75.9%.
This study, conducted in collaboration with UCLA Health and recently published in the Journal of Urology, highlights the advantages of using AI in conjunction with traditional diagnostic methods. The research demonstrated that AI-assisted cancer contouring predictions were 45 times more accurate and consistent. According to Shyam Natarajan, an assistant adjunct professor at UCLA and the senior author of the study, the combination of AI assistance led to improved accuracy and greater agreement among doctors.
A notable challenge in prostate cancer detection is the presence of “MRI-invisible” tumors, as explained by UCLA’s Dr. Wayne Brisbane. He emphasized that while doctors typically rely on MRIs to determine tumor size, AI has the potential to detect tumors that traditional imaging may overlook.
Overall, the integration of AI in cancer diagnosis and treatment could pave the way for more effective, personalized care, tailoring treatments to meet individual patient needs and enhancing the chances of successful outcomes. Dr. Natarajan, CEO of Avenda Health, expressed optimism about the validation of this innovation within the medical community, underscoring the importance of such advancements recognized by the American Medical Association (AMA).
In the United States, prostate cancer will affect approximately 1 in 8 men during their lifetime, with predictions of 299,010 new cases this year and 35,250 fatalities from the disease according to the American Cancer Society.
This groundbreaking advancement in medical technology offers genuine hope for improved detection and treatment of prostate cancer, potentially saving countless lives by enabling earlier, more accurate diagnoses.