A healthcare technology firm has announced that its AI software can identify the extent of prostate cancer with greater accuracy than traditional methods used by doctors. Avenda Health disclosed findings from a recent study involving ten physicians who evaluated 50 prostate cancer cases each. The results indicated that Avenda’s Unfold AI achieved an accuracy rate of 84.7%, surpassing the manual detection accuracy of physicians, which ranged from 67.2% to 75.9%.
Conducted in collaboration with UCLA Health and published in the Journal of Urology, the study also highlighted that using AI for cancer contouring significantly improved the accuracy of predicting tumor size—demonstrating a 45-fold increase in precision compared to manual methods.
“The integration of AI assistance led to improved accuracy and consistency among doctors, as they were more likely to reach consensus when using AI tools,” explained Shyam Natarajan, an assistant adjunct professor of urology, surgery, and bioengineering at UCLA and the study’s senior author.
Despite routine use of MRIs to determine tumor size, some tumors remain undetectable on these scans. Dr. Wayne Brisbane, an assistant professor of urology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, emphasized that AI can identify what MRIs may miss, stating, “AI can go beyond human ability” in enhancing cancer treatment.
Brisbane also expressed optimism that combining AI with medical practice can lead to more effective and personalized patient care, better tailored to individual needs, ultimately improving treatment outcomes for prostate cancer patients.
According to the American Cancer Society, roughly 1 in 8 men will receive a prostate cancer diagnosis during their lifetime, and 1 in 44 men will succumb to the illness. The organization estimates 299,010 new prostate cancer cases will be identified in the U.S. this year, with approximately 35,250 deaths attributed to the disease.
This advancement in AI technology is a promising step forward in healthcare, potentially leading to breakthroughs in the diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer, thereby improving life expectancy and quality of life for patients.