A healthcare technology company, Avenda Health, has announced impressive findings regarding its AI software’s ability to detect the severity of prostate cancer. In a recent study involving ten doctors who assessed 50 different cases of prostate cancer, Avenda’s Unfold AI software achieved an accuracy rate of 84.7% in detecting cancer. In comparison, the human physicians’ accuracy ranged from 67.2% to 75.9%.
The study was conducted in collaboration with UCLA Health and published in the Journal of Urology. It highlighted that the AI-assisted cancer contouring significantly improved the predictions of tumor size, making them 45 times more accurate and consistent compared to manual assessments.
Dr. Shyam Natarajan, who is also an assistant adjunct professor of urology, surgery, and bioengineering at UCLA, stated that the integration of AI assistance enabled doctors to improve both their accuracy and consistency in diagnosing cancer, leading to more agreement among them during evaluations.
Currently, doctors utilize MRI scans to understand tumor sizes. However, some tumors are not visible on MRIs, which can hinder effective diagnosis. Dr. Wayne Brisbane noted the advantages of AI, emphasizing that it can provide insights where traditional imaging methods may fall short. He added that employing AI in cancer treatment could pave the way for more personalized patient care, allowing treatments to be tailored to individual needs and potentially more effective in combating the disease.
Dr. Natarajan expressed the excitement surrounding this innovation, stating that it is empowering for physicians to see such advancements validated through research and acknowledged by the American Medical Association (AMA).
According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 1 in 8 men in the United States will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime, with an estimated 299,010 new cases expected this year alone and about 35,250 men projected to die from the disease.
In summary, Avenda Health’s advancements in AI technology may revolutionize prostate cancer detection and treatment, offering hope for more accurate diagnoses and better patient outcomes in the future. The ongoing collaboration between technology and healthcare aims to improve the lives of countless patients.