An artificial intelligence healthcare firm claims its software can identify the extent of prostate cancer with greater accuracy than doctors.
Avenda Health published a study last month involving ten physicians who evaluated 50 distinct prostate cancer cases each. The company’s Unfold AI software achieved an accuracy rate of 84.7% in detecting cancer, compared to the 67.2% to 75.9% accuracy of the doctors attempting manual detection.
Conducted in collaboration with UCLA Health and featured in the Journal of Urology, the study also revealed that utilizing AI for cancer contouring resulted in size predictions that were 45 times more precise and consistent when compared to traditional methods.
Shyam Natarajan, an assistant adjunct professor of urology, surgery, and bioengineering at UCLA and senior author of the study, noted that the incorporation of AI assistance not only improved doctors’ accuracy but also enhanced their consistency, leading to greater agreement among them.
Physicians typically rely on MRIs to assess tumor sizes; however, certain tumors can be “MRI-invisible,” explained Dr. Wayne Brisbane, an assistant professor of urology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. AI provides support in these instances where MRIs fall short.
Brisbane emphasized that implementing AI in cancer treatment may yield more effective and personalized patient care, allowing for therapies that better suit individual needs and enhance the fight against the disease, stating that AI can surpass human capabilities.
Avenda Health CEO Dr. Shyam Natarajan expressed pride in seeing this innovation 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 receive a prostate cancer diagnosis in their lifetime, with 1 in 44 men succumbing to the illness. This year, it is projected that there will be 299,010 new prostate cancer cases in the U.S., with 35,250 fatalities attributed to the disease.