An AI healthcare company has announced that its software offers a more precise detection of prostate cancer compared to traditional methods used by doctors.
Avenda Health published a study last month involving ten physicians, each of whom evaluated 50 different cases of prostate cancer. The company’s Unfold AI software demonstrated an accuracy rate of 84.7% in detecting cancer, whereas the physicians’ manual assessments ranged from 67.2% to 75.9% accuracy.
Conducted in collaboration with UCLA Health and featured in the Journal of Urology, the study revealed that utilizing AI for cancer contouring resulted in predictions of tumor size being 45 times more accurate and consistent than those made without AI support.
Shyam Natarajan, an assistant adjunct professor of urology, surgery, and bioengineering at UCLA and the senior author of the study, stated that the integration of AI assistance made doctors not only more accurate but also more consistent in their assessments.
Typically, doctors rely on MRIs to evaluate tumor size. However, as Dr. Wayne Brisbane, an assistant professor of urology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, noted, some tumors remain “MRI-invisible.” AI technology fills that gap by providing valuable insights where MRIs may fall short.
Dr. Brisbane emphasized that the application of AI in cancer treatment could lead to more personalized and effective care for patients, allowing treatments to be uniquely tailored to individual needs thereby enhancing the success rate in combating the disease. He remarked that AI has the potential to transcend human capabilities.
Avenda Health’s CEO, Dr. Shyam Natarajan, expressed the significance of these findings, stating that it is “empowering for physicians to see this kind of innovation being validated through studies and recognized by the AMA.”
According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 1 in 8 men in the U.S. will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime, with 1 in 44 men succumbing to the disease. It is estimated that in 2023 there will be 299,010 new cases of prostate cancer in the U.S., with 35,250 expected deaths from the illness.