An artificial intelligence healthcare company has announced that its software can detect the extent of prostate cancer with greater accuracy than human doctors.
Avenda Health conducted a study involving ten doctors who evaluated 50 different prostate cancer cases each. The company’s Unfold AI software achieved an accuracy rate of 84.7% in detecting cancer, while the physicians’ manual assessments ranged from 67.2% to 75.9%.
The study, conducted in collaboration with UCLA Health and published in the Journal of Urology, also revealed that AI-assisted cancer contouring led to predictions of tumor size that were 45 times more accurate and consistent compared to assessments made without AI assistance.
“AI assistance has improved both the accuracy and consistency of doctors’ assessments, resulting in greater agreement among physicians when using AI tools,” said Shyam Natarajan, assistant adjunct professor of urology, surgery, and bioengineering at UCLA and senior author of the study.
Traditionally, doctors rely on MRIs to gauge tumor size; however, some tumors are undetectable through MRI, according to Dr. Wayne Brisbane, an assistant professor of urology at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine. AI has the potential to identify what MRIs cannot.
“The integration of AI in cancer care could enhance treatment efficacy and personalization, ensuring therapies are better suited to patients’ unique situations and more successful in combating the disease,” Brisbane stated, adding that AI can surpass human capabilities.
Dr. Shyam Natarajan, CEO of Avenda Health, expressed pride in the validation of such innovations through studies and recognition from the American Medical Association.
According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 1 in 8 men in the U.S. will be diagnosed with prostate cancer at some point in their lives, with 1 in 44 men ultimately succumbing to the disease. This year, it is projected that there will be 299,010 new prostate cancer cases in the U.S., resulting in an estimated 35,250 deaths.