An AI healthcare company claims that its software can more accurately detect the extent of prostate cancer compared to traditional methods used by doctors.
Avenda Health announced the results of a study in which ten physicians evaluated 50 different prostate cancer cases. The study revealed that Avenda’s Unfold AI software achieved an accuracy rate of 84.7% in detecting cancer, whereas the doctors’ manual assessments ranged from 67.2% to 75.9% accuracy.
Conducted in collaboration with UCLA Health and published in the Journal of Urology, the study reported that AI significantly improved the accuracy of cancer size predictions, making them 45 times more precise when compared to traditional approaches without AI.
Shyam Natarajan, an assistant adjunct professor of urology, surgery, and bioengineering at UCLA and the senior author of the study, highlighted the advantage of AI in fostering both accuracy and consistency among doctors’ assessments. He noted that with AI assistance, there was a noticeable increase in agreement among the doctors.
Currently, doctors rely on MRI scans to evaluate tumor sizes; however, some tumors are not visible in these scans. Dr. Wayne Brisbane, an assistant professor of urology at UCLA, emphasized that AI is beneficial in situations where MRIs fall short. He stated, “The use of AI in cancer treatment could lead to more effective and personalized care for patients, with treatments tailored to their individual needs and greater success in combating the disease.”
Avenda Health CEO Dr. Shyam Natarajan expressed his enthusiasm for the validation of such innovations through studies and recognition by the American Medical Association (AMA).
According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 1 in 8 men in the U.S. will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during their lifetime, and 1 in 44 will die from it. This year, it is estimated that there will be 299,010 new cases of prostate cancer in the U.S., with 35,250 fatalities attributed to the disease.