Avenda Health, an AI healthcare company, claims that its software is capable of detecting the extent of prostate cancer with greater accuracy than traditional methods employed by doctors.
A recent study conducted by Avenda Health involved ten physicians, each evaluating 50 different cases of prostate cancer. The findings revealed that the company’s Unfold AI software achieved an accuracy rate of 84.7%, surpassing the manual detection accuracy of the physicians, which ranged from 67.2% to 75.9%.
The research, conducted in collaboration with UCLA Health and published in the Journal of Urology, demonstrated that utilizing AI for cancer contouring resulted in predictions of cancer size that were 45 times more precise and consistent compared to assessments without AI.
Dr. Shyam Natarajan, the assistant adjunct professor of urology, surgery, and bioengineering at UCLA, and the senior author of the study, noted that AI assistance enhanced both the accuracy and consistency of the doctors’ assessments, leading to increased agreement among them.
Typically, doctors rely on MRI scans to determine tumor sizes; however, according to Dr. Wayne Brisbane, an assistant professor of urology at UCLA, some tumors remain “MRI-invisible.” He emphasized that AI technology proves beneficial in cases where MRIs fall short.
Dr. Brisbane stated that the application of AI in cancer treatment could usher in more effective and personalized patient care, allowing treatments to be tailored to individual requirements and improving success rates against the disease. He remarked that AI has the potential to “go beyond human ability.”
Dr. Natarajan, CEO of Avenda Health, expressed enthusiasm about the validation of this innovation through studies and its recognition by the American Medical Association (AMA).
In the United States, approximately 1 in 8 men are expected to be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime, and 1 in 44 men may succumb to the disease, per the American Cancer Society. This year alone, an estimated 299,010 new cases of prostate cancer are anticipated, with around 35,250 fatalities resulting from the condition.