Avenda Health, an AI healthcare company, claims that its software surpasses human doctors in accurately detecting the extent of prostate cancer.
Recently, the company published a study that involved ten physicians evaluating 50 different prostate cancer cases each. The results revealed that Avenda’s Unfold AI software achieved an accuracy rate of 84.7% in detecting cancer, while the manual assessments made by doctors ranged from 67.2% to 75.9%.
Conducted in collaboration with UCLA Health and featured in the Journal of Urology, the study also highlighted that AI significantly improved predictions regarding the size of cancerous tumors, making them 45 times more accurate and consistent compared to traditional methods without AI assistance.
Shyam Natarajan, a senior author of the study and an assistant adjunct professor of urology, surgery, and bioengineering at UCLA, commented on the findings, stating that AI assistance enhanced both the accuracy and consistency of diagnoses among doctors, leading to greater agreement in their assessments.
Dr. Wayne Brisbane, an assistant professor of urology at UCLA, pointed out the limitations of MRIs, noting that some tumors are not visible through this imaging method. He emphasized that AI technology can assist where MRIs fall short, ultimately contributing to more effective and personalized cancer treatments tailored to individual patient needs.
Avenda Health’s CEO, Dr. Shyam Natarajan, expressed enthusiasm for the validation of this innovation, mentioning its recognition by the American Medical Association (AMA).
According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 1 in 8 men in the U.S. will face a prostate cancer diagnosis in their lifetime, and 1 in 44 will succumb to the disease. This year, it is estimated that there will be 299,010 new cases of prostate cancer in the country, with 35,250 expected deaths resulting from it.