An artificial intelligence healthcare company has claimed that its software can identify the extent of prostate cancer more accurately than medical professionals.
Avenda Health conducted a study with ten doctors, each assessing 50 prostate cancer cases. The results showed that Avenda’s Unfold AI software achieved an accuracy rate of 84.7% in detecting cancer, surpassing the manual detection rates of physicians, which ranged from 67.2% to 75.9%.
The study, conducted in collaboration with UCLA Health and published in the Journal of Urology, also indicated that AI-assisted cancer contouring predictions of tumor size were 45 times more accurate and consistent compared to traditional methods.
Shyam Natarajan, assistant adjunct professor of urology, surgery, and bioengineering at UCLA and senior author of the study, noted that the inclusion of AI assistance led to greater accuracy and consistency among doctors, enabling them to reach consensus more often.
While doctors commonly use MRIs to determine tumor size, some tumors do not appear on MRI scans. Dr. Wayne Brisbane, an assistant professor of urology at UCLA, explained that AI can provide insights where MRIs may fall short.
Brisbane emphasized that employing AI in cancer treatment could enhance personalized patient care, allowing for more tailored and effective treatment strategies. He stated that AI has the potential to surpass human capabilities.
Dr. Shyam Natarajan, CEO of Avenda Health, expressed that it is empowering for physicians to witness this innovation being validated through studies and acknowledged by 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 in their lifetime, and 1 in 44 will succumb to the disease. It is estimated that there will be 299,010 new cases of prostate cancer in the U.S. this year, with 35,250 fatalities attributed to the illness.