A healthcare technology company has announced that its artificial intelligence software is capable of more accurately assessing the extent of prostate cancer compared to traditional methods used by doctors.
Avenda Health conducted a study involving ten physicians who evaluated 50 different prostate cancer cases. The results revealed that Avenda’s Unfold AI software achieved a detection accuracy of 84.7%, while the accuracy for the doctors ranged from 67.2% to 75.9%.
The research, conducted in collaboration with UCLA Health and published in the Journal of Urology, also indicated that AI-assisted cancer contouring led to predictions about cancer size that were 45 times more accurate and consistent compared to those made without AI assistance.
According to Shyam Natarajan, an assistant adjunct professor of urology, surgery, and bioengineering at UCLA and the senior author of the study, AI assistance not only improved accuracy but also increased consistency among doctors’ evaluations.
Doctors commonly rely on MRI scans to gauge tumor size, but some tumors do not appear on MRIs, as noted by Dr. Wayne Brisbane, an assistant professor of urology at UCLA. He explained that AI can provide critical assistance in these scenarios.
Brisbane emphasized that incorporating AI into cancer treatment could enhance personalized patient care, resulting in treatment plans that are better suited to individual needs and more effective in combating the disease. He remarked that AI has the potential to extend beyond human capabilities.
Dr. Shyam Natarajan, CEO of Avenda Health, expressed enthusiasm about the validation of their innovation through studies and recognition by the American Medical Association.
Statistics from the American Cancer Society indicate that approximately 1 in 8 men in the U.S. will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime, and 1 in 44 will die from it. There are anticipated to be 299,010 new cases of prostate cancer in the U.S. this year, with 35,250 fatalities arising from the disease.