An artificial intelligence healthcare company claims that its software is capable of detecting prostate cancer more accurately than medical professionals.
Avenda Health recently published a study involving ten physicians who evaluated 50 separate prostate cancer cases each. The study revealed that Avenda’s Unfold AI software achieved a cancer detection accuracy of 84.7%, whereas the manual assessments by doctors yielded accuracy rates ranging from 67.2% to 75.9%.
The research, conducted in collaboration with UCLA Health and featured in the Journal of Urology, highlighted that AI-assisted cancer contouring predictions of tumor size were 45 times more accurate and consistent compared to traditional methods without AI.
Shyam Natarajan, an assistant adjunct professor of urology at UCLA and the senior author of the study, noted that the integration of AI assistance improved both the accuracy and consistency of physicians’ assessments, resulting in increased agreement among doctors using the technology.
Typically, doctors utilize MRIs to determine tumor sizes; however, certain tumors are not visible in MRIs, according to Dr. Wayne Brisbane, an assistant professor of urology at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine. He emphasized that AI can provide valuable insights where MRIs fall short.
Dr. Brisbane expressed that incorporating AI into cancer treatment could enhance personalized care, allowing for treatments that are tailored more effectively to patients’ specific needs, potentially improving outcomes. He emphasized AI’s ability to extend beyond human capabilities.
Dr. Shyam Natarajan, CEO of Avenda Health, remarked on the significance of such innovation being validated through research and recognized by the American Medical Association.
According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 1 in 8 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer at some point in their lives, and 1 in 44 men will succumb to the disease. It is projected that in the United States, there will be 299,010 new cases of prostate cancer this year, resulting in an estimated 35,250 deaths from the illness.