An AI healthcare company claims that its software can more accurately detect the extent of prostate cancer than doctors.
Avenda Health conducted a study involving ten doctors who each evaluated 50 different prostate cancer cases. Their AI software, Unfold AI, achieved an accuracy rate of 84.7%, compared to the manual detection rates of physicians, which ranged from 67.2% to 75.9%.
The research, a collaboration with UCLA Health and published in the Journal of Urology, indicated that AI-assisted cancer contouring allowed for predictions of cancer size to be 45 times more accurate and consistent compared to traditional methods.
Shyam Natarajan, an assistant adjunct professor of urology, surgery, and bioengineering at UCLA and senior author of the study, noted that AI assistance improved both the accuracy and consistency of doctors’ assessments. Physicians exhibited greater agreement when utilizing AI support in their evaluations.
Typically, doctors rely on MRIs to determine tumor size, but some tumors can be “MRI-invisible,” explained Dr. Wayne Brisbane, an assistant professor of urology at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine. AI technology can address the limitations of MRIs.
Brisbane remarked that the incorporation of AI in cancer treatment could enhance patient care with more personalized and effective therapeutic options tailored to individual cases. He emphasized that AI has the potential to surpass human capabilities.
Avenda Health’s CEO Dr. Shyam Natarajan expressed that it is empowering for healthcare professionals to see such innovations being validated through studies and acknowledged by the American Medical Association.
According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 1 in 8 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime, and 1 in 44 will succumb to the disease. This year, it is estimated that there will be 299,010 new prostate cancer cases in the U.S., with 35,250 deaths attributed to the illness.