An artificial intelligence healthcare company has announced that its software can more accurately identify the extent of prostate cancer compared to traditional methods used by doctors.
Avenda Health published a study last month, featuring ten physicians who evaluated 50 prostate cancer cases each. The results indicated that Avenda’s Unfold AI software achieved an accuracy rate of 84.7% in detecting cancer. In contrast, the accuracy of the physicians ranged from 67.2% to 75.9%.
This study, conducted in collaboration with UCLA Health and published in the Journal of Urology, revealed that the integration of AI in cancer contouring resulted in size predictions that were 45 times more accurate and consistent than without AI assistance.
Shyam Natarajan, assistant adjunct professor of urology, surgery, and bioengineering at UCLA and the study’s senior author, noted that the use of AI made physicians more precise and consistent, leading to a higher level of agreement among doctors when leveraging AI tools.
Typically, doctors rely on MRIs to gauge tumor size. However, some tumors can be “MRI-invisible,” as explained by Dr. Wayne Brisbane, an assistant professor of urology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He emphasized the role of AI in identifying what MRIs may miss.
Brisbane stated, “Overall, the use of AI in cancer treatment could lead to more effective and personalized care for patients, with treatments better tailored to their individual needs and more successful in combating the disease.” He added that AI has the capability to “go beyond human ability.”
Dr. Shyam Natarajan, CEO of Avenda Health, remarked on the significance of having such innovations recognized through studies and acknowledged by the AMA.
According to the American Cancer Society, about 1 in 8 men in the U.S. will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime, and 1 in 44 will succumb to the disease. This year, it is projected that there will be 299,010 new cases of prostate cancer in the U.S., with 35,250 expected fatalities.