A healthcare technology company claims its software can more precisely identify the extent of prostate cancer compared to traditional methods employed by doctors.
Avenda Health conducted a study involving ten physicians who evaluated 50 separate prostate cancer cases. The findings revealed that Avenda’s Unfold AI software achieved an accuracy rate of 84.7% in detecting cancer, significantly outperforming doctors, whose accuracy ranged from 67.2% to 75.9%.
The research, published in the Journal of Urology and conducted in collaboration with UCLA Health, also demonstrated that when AI was utilized for cancer contouring, estimates of tumor size were 45 times more accurate and consistent compared to evaluations conducted without AI assistance.
Shyam Natarajan, an assistant adjunct professor of urology, surgery, and bioengineering at UCLA and the study’s senior author, commented that the incorporation of AI assistance resulted in greater accuracy and consistency among doctors, fostering a higher level of agreement in their assessments.
Typically, physicians rely on MRIs to determine tumor dimensions. However, Dr. Wayne Brisbane, an assistant professor of urology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, noted that certain tumors are not visible on MRIs, highlighting AI’s potential to fill in those gaps.
Brisbane emphasized that leveraging AI in cancer treatment could pave the way for more effective and personalized patient care, offering treatments specifically tailored to individual needs and increasing the likelihood of successful outcomes.
Dr. Shyam Natarajan, CEO of Avenda Health, expressed that it is encouraging for healthcare providers to witness such innovations being validated through research and gaining recognition from the American Medical Association.
According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 1 in 8 men will receive a prostate cancer diagnosis in their lifetime, with 1 in 44 men succumbing to the illness. In the United States, it is projected that there will be 299,010 new prostate cancer cases this year, resulting in an estimated 35,250 deaths from the disease.