A healthcare technology company claims that its software can diagnose prostate cancer with greater accuracy than medical professionals.
Avenda Health conducted a study last month involving ten doctors who evaluated fifty different prostate cancer cases. Their AI software, named Unfold, identified cancer with an accuracy rate of 84.7%. In comparison, the physicians showed manual detection accuracy ranging from 67.2% to 75.9%.
The research, conducted in collaboration with UCLA Health and published in the Journal of Urology, revealed that incorporating AI for cancer contouring led to predictions of tumor size being 45 times more accurate and reliable compared to traditional methods.
Dr. Shyam Natarajan, assistant adjunct professor of urology, surgery, and bioengineering at UCLA and the senior author of the study, stated that the use of AI assistance improved both the accuracy and consistency of doctors’ assessments, encouraging greater agreement among them.
Dr. Wayne Brisbane, an assistant professor of urology at UCLA, noted that while doctors typically rely on MRIs to gauge tumor size, some tumors are “MRI-invisible.” He emphasized that AI can provide valuable insights where MRI fails.
Brisbane added that the integration of AI in cancer treatment could enhance personalized care, allowing for treatments that are more tailored to individual patient needs and more effective against the disease. He remarked that AI has the potential to surpass human capabilities.
Dr. Natarajan, CEO of Avenda Health, expressed optimism regarding the validation of this innovation through research and its acknowledgment by the American Medical Association.
According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 1 in 8 men will receive a prostate cancer diagnosis in their lifetime, with about 1 in 44 men succumbing to the disease. It is projected that there will be 299,010 new prostate cancer cases in the U.S. this year, with 35,250 fatalities.