Avenda Health claims that its AI software can more accurately assess the extent of prostate cancer than human doctors. A recent study involving ten physicians, each evaluating 50 prostate cancer cases, revealed that Avenda’s Unfold AI software achieved a detection accuracy of 84.7%. In comparison, the doctors’ manual assessments ranged from 67.2% to 75.9%.
Conducted in collaboration with UCLA Health and published in the Journal of Urology, the study highlighted that AI-assisted cancer contouring provided predictions of tumor size that were 45 times more accurate and consistent than traditional methods.
Shyam Natarajan, assistant adjunct professor of urology, surgery, and bioengineering at UCLA and the study’s senior author, noted that AI assistance improved the accuracy and consistency of the doctors’ assessments, leading to greater consensus among them.
Doctors typically utilize MRIs to evaluate tumor size, but some tumors are “MRI-invisible,” according to Dr. Wayne Brisbane, an assistant professor of urology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He emphasized that AI fills in gaps where MRIs may not be effective.
Brisbane stated that incorporating AI into cancer treatment could enhance personalized care, tailoring treatments to meet individual patient needs more successfully. He remarked that AI has the potential to surpass human capabilities.
Dr. Shyam Natarajan, CEO of Avenda Health, expressed pride in the validation of their innovation through research and recognition from the American Medical Association.
According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 1 in 8 men in the U.S. will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime, and 1 in 44 men will succumb to the disease. This year alone, it is estimated that there will be 299,010 new prostate cancer cases in the United States, with 35,250 expected fatalities.