An AI healthcare firm claims its software offers a more precise detection of prostate cancer than traditional methods used by doctors.
Avenda Health conducted a study involving ten physicians who evaluated a total of 50 prostate cancer cases. The results indicated that Avenda’s Unfold AI software achieved an accuracy rate of 84.7% in detecting cancer, whereas doctors assessing the cases manually had accuracy rates ranging from 67.2% to 75.9%.
Collaboratively conducted with UCLA Health and published in the Journal of Urology, the study also highlighted that AI-assisted cancer contouring led to predictions of tumor size that were 45 times more accurate and consistent compared to assessments made without AI.
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 not only improved doctors’ accuracy but also enhanced their consistency, causing greater agreement among physicians when utilizing AI assistance.
Traditionally, doctors rely on MRIs to assess tumor size; however, some tumors remain “MRI-invisible,” as explained by Dr. Wayne Brisbane, an assistant professor of urology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He emphasized that AI can reveal what MRIs might overlook.
Brisbane further remarked that incorporating AI in cancer treatment could pave the way for more effective and personalized patient care, tailoring treatments to meet individual needs and increasing the likelihood of successfully combating the disease.
Dr. Shyam Natarajan, the CEO of Avenda Health, expressed that it is reassuring for physicians to witness the validation of such innovations through research and acknowledgment from the American Medical Association.
According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 1 in 8 men in the U.S. will face a prostate cancer diagnosis in their lifetime, with 1 in 44 succumbing to the illness. It is projected that there will be 299,010 new prostate cancer cases diagnosed in the U.S. this year, resulting in 35,250 fatalities from the disease.