A healthcare technology company, Avenda Health, claims that its AI software can detect the extent of prostate cancer more accurately than medical professionals.
The company recently published a study that involved ten doctors evaluating 50 prostate cancer cases each. The findings revealed that Avenda’s Unfold AI achieved an accuracy rate of 84.7% in detecting cancer, whereas doctors manually determining cancer presence had accuracy rates ranging from 67.2% to 75.9%.
Conducted in collaboration with UCLA Health and featured in the Journal of Urology, the study indicated that utilizing AI for cancer contouring led to predictions of cancer size being 45 times more precise and consistent compared to traditional methods.
Dr. Shyam Natarajan, assistant adjunct professor of urology, surgery, and bioengineering at UCLA and the study’s senior author, explained that incorporating AI assistance enhances both the accuracy and consistency of physicians’ diagnoses, allowing for greater agreement among doctors when using AI support.
Dr. Wayne Brisbane, an assistant professor of urology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, emphasized that while MRIs are typically used to measure tumor size, some tumors are undetectable by MRI. He noted that AI can provide insight in situations where MRIs may not be effective.
Brisbane further remarked that the integration of AI in cancer treatment could lead to more effective and personalized patient care, allowing for treatments that are better aligned with individual patient needs and potentially more effective in combating the disease. He added that AI has the capability to surpass human diagnostic abilities.
Dr. Shyam Natarajan, CEO of Avenda Health, expressed satisfaction over the study’s validation of innovation in the field, noting its recognition 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 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., resulting in an estimated 35,250 deaths from the disease.