An artificial intelligence healthcare company claims that its software can detect the extent of prostate cancer more effectively than medical professionals.
Avenda Health published a study last month involving ten doctors who evaluated 50 prostate cancer cases each. Their AI software, Unfold AI, achieved an accuracy rate of 84.7%, while the physicians’ manual assessments ranged from 67.2% to 75.9% in accuracy.
The research, conducted in collaboration with UCLA Health and featured in the Journal of Urology, also indicated that the use of AI for cancer contouring resulted in predictions of cancer size being 45 times more precise and consistent compared to traditional methods.
Shyam Natarajan, assistant adjunct professor of urology, surgery, and bioengineering at UCLA and the study’s senior author, stated that AI assistance improved both the accuracy and consistency of doctors’ evaluations, leading to greater agreement among physicians when AI was utilized.
Doctors typically rely on MRIs to determine tumor size. However, some tumors are not visible on MRIs, as noted by Dr. Wayne Brisbane, an assistant professor of urology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. AI proves beneficial in these cases where MRIs fall short.
Brisbane remarked that the integration of AI in cancer treatment has the potential to enhance personalized care, allowing for treatments that are more effectively suited to patients’ unique needs and increasing the chances of successfully combating the disease. He emphasized that AI can surpass human capabilities.
Dr. Shyam Natarajan, CEO of Avenda Health, expressed that it is empowering for physicians to see such innovations being validated through research and acknowledged by the American Medical Association.
According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 1 in 8 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during their lives, and 1 in 44 men will succumb to the illness. It is projected that there will be 299,010 new prostate cancer cases in the U.S. this year, with 35,250 expected deaths from the disease.