An AI healthcare company claims that its software can more accurately assess the extent of prostate cancer compared to traditional methods used by doctors.
Avenda Health conducted a study involving ten physicians who evaluated 50 prostate cancer cases each. The findings revealed that Avenda’s Unfold AI software achieved an accuracy of 84.7% in detecting cancer, while doctors’ manual assessments ranged from 67.2% to 75.9% accuracy.
The research, conducted in collaboration with UCLA Health and published in the Journal of Urology, demonstrated that AI-assisted cancer contouring yielded predictions of tumor size that were 45 times more accurate and consistent than those made without AI assistance.
Shyam Natarajan, an assistant adjunct professor of urology, surgery, and bioengineering at UCLA and senior author of the study, noted that AI tools not only enhanced the accuracy of the doctors but also increased agreement among them while using AI.
Dr. Wayne Brisbane, an assistant professor of urology at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine, pointed out that doctors typically rely on MRIs to assess tumor size, though some tumors may not be visible via MRI. He emphasized that AI can provide valuable insights in such cases.
Natarajan remarked on the empowerment doctors feel from witnessing innovations validated through research and recognized by the American Medical Association.
According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 1 in 8 men in the U.S. will be diagnosed with prostate cancer at some point in their lives, and about 1 in 44 men will succumb to the illness. It is projected that the U.S. will see 299,010 new prostate cancer cases in the current year, with an estimated 35,250 deaths from the disease.