An AI healthcare company claims that its software can detect the extent of prostate cancer more accurately than human doctors.
Avenda Health recently conducted a study involving ten physicians who each evaluated 50 prostate cancer cases. The company’s Unfold AI software achieved a detection accuracy of 84.7%, while the doctors’ manual assessments ranged from 67.2% to 75.9%.
This research, carried out in collaboration with UCLA Health and published in the Journal of Urology, revealed that using AI for cancer contouring led to predictions of tumor size being 45 times more accurate and consistent than those made without AI assistance.
Shyam Natarajan, an assistant adjunct professor of urology, surgery, and bioengineering at UCLA and the study’s senior author, stated that the integration of AI support resulted in greater accuracy and consistency among doctors, with increased agreement in diagnoses when AI was utilized.
Radiologists often rely on MRIs to evaluate tumor size; however, some tumors can be “MRI-invisible,” according to Dr. Wayne Brisbane, an assistant professor of urology at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine. He emphasized that AI could help identify these difficult cases.
Brisbane added that the incorporation of AI in cancer treatment could lead to more effective, personalized care that better addresses the individual needs of patients while enhancing treatment success rates against the disease.
Dr. Shyam Natarajan, CEO of Avenda Health, expressed that it is empowering for medical practitioners to witness such innovations being validated through research and recognized by the American Medical Association.
According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 1 in 8 men in the United States will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime, and 1 in 44 men will succumb to the illness. It is projected that there will be 299,010 new instances of prostate cancer in the U.S. this year, with 35,250 resulting in fatalities.