An AI healthcare firm claims its technology can more accurately identify the extent of prostate cancer compared to traditional methods used by doctors.
Avenda Health published a study the previous month, which involved ten physicians evaluating 50 different prostate cancer cases. The company’s Unfold AI software achieved an accuracy rate of 84.7% in detecting cancer, whereas doctors assessing the cases manually had accuracy rates ranging from 67.2% to 75.9%.
Conducted in collaboration with UCLA Health and featured in the Journal of Urology, the study revealed that using AI for cancer contouring predictions resulted in measurements that were 45 times more accurate and consistent compared to non-AI methods.
Shyam Natarajan, an assistant adjunct professor of urology, surgery, and bioengineering at UCLA, and the study’s senior author, noted that the use of AI assistance increased both the accuracy and consistency of doctors’ assessments, leading to greater agreement among practitioners.
While doctors typically rely on MRI scans to determine tumor sizes, some tumors are not visible in these scans. Dr. Wayne Brisbane, an assistant professor of urology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, highlighted the role of AI in overcoming these limitations. He emphasized that AI has the potential to enhance cancer treatment, offering patients more personalized care tailored to their specific needs, which can improve treatment efficacy.
Dr. Shyam Natarajan, CEO of Avenda Health, expressed that witnessing such innovation being validated through studies and recognized by the American Medical Association is empowering for physicians.
According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 1 in 8 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime, with 1 in 44 men succumbing to the disease. It is estimated that there will be 299,010 new prostate cancer cases in the U.S. this year, with 35,250 men expected to die from it.