An artificial intelligence healthcare firm claims its software can more accurately assess the extent of prostate cancer compared to human doctors.
Avenda Health recently published a study involving ten doctors who each evaluated 50 prostate cancer cases. The company’s Unfold AI software achieved an accuracy rate of 84.7% in detecting cancer, while the doctors’ manual assessments ranged from 67.2% to 75.9% in accuracy.
Conducted in collaboration with UCLA Health and featured in the Journal of Urology, the study also reported that AI-assisted cancer contouring resulted in size predictions being 45 times more accurate and consistent than traditional methods.
Shyam Natarajan, an assistant adjunct professor of urology, surgery, and bioengineering at UCLA and senior author of the study, commented that the integration of AI assistance enhanced both the accuracy and consistency of the doctors’ assessments, leading to greater agreement among them.
Typically, physicians rely on MRIs to determine tumor sizes; however, some tumors are not visible through MRI scans. According to Dr. Wayne Brisbane, an assistant professor of urology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, AI technology can aid in situations where MRIs may fall short.
Brisbane noted that AI’s application in cancer treatment could facilitate more effective and personalized patient care, enhancing treatment strategies tailored to individual needs. He emphasized that AI possesses capabilities that extend beyond human limitations.
Dr. Shyam Natarajan, CEO of Avenda Health, expressed pride in seeing such innovations validated through research and acknowledged by the American Medical Association.
The American Cancer Society reports that approximately one in eight men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime, and one in 44 will succumb to the illness. This year, it’s estimated that there will be 299,010 new prostate cancer cases in the United States, with around 35,250 projected deaths resulting from the disease.