A healthcare company specializing in artificial intelligence claims its software can more accurately assess the extent of prostate cancer than human doctors.
Avenda Health conducted a study involving ten physicians who each examined 50 prostate cancer cases. Their AI tool, called Unfold AI, achieved an accuracy of 84.7% in detecting cancer, whereas the doctors scored between 67.2% and 75.9% in their manual assessments.
This research, published in the Journal of Urology and conducted in collaboration with UCLA Health, also indicated that AI assistance significantly improved cancer size predictions by 45 times, making them more accurate and consistent.
Shyam Natarajan, an assistant adjunct professor of urology, surgery, and bioengineering at UCLA and the study’s senior author, noted that the use of AI enabled doctors to be both more precise and more aligned in their diagnoses.
Typically, physicians rely on MRIs to evaluate tumor size, but some tumors can be undetectable by MRIs, as per Dr. Wayne Brisbane, an assistant professor of urology at UCLA. He emphasized that AI fills the gaps where MRIs cannot provide clarity.
Dr. Brisbane highlighted that incorporating AI into cancer treatment could enhance personalized care, leading to better tailored and more effective therapies for patients. He stressed that AI has the potential to surpass human capabilities in this domain.
Avenda Health’s CEO, Dr. Shyam Natarajan, expressed excitement about the validation of their innovation through such studies and recognition by the American Medical Association.
According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 1 in 8 men in the U.S. will receive a prostate cancer diagnosis during their lifetime, while 1 in 44 will succumb to the disease. It is estimated that in 2023, there will be about 299,010 new prostate cancer cases in the U.S., resulting in 35,250 deaths from the illness.