An artificial intelligence healthcare company claims its software can identify the extent of prostate cancer more accurately than human doctors.
Avenda Health conducted a study last month involving ten physicians who each evaluated 50 separate prostate cancer cases. The company’s Unfold AI software demonstrated an accuracy rate of 84.7% in detecting cancer, while the accuracy of the doctors assessing the cases manually ranged from 67.2% to 75.9%.
The study, collaboration with UCLA Health and published in the Journal of Urology, highlighted that AI-assisted cancer contouring resulted in predictions of cancer size being 45 times more accurate and consistent compared to traditional methods.
According to Shyam Natarajan, assistant adjunct professor of urology, surgery, and bioengineering at UCLA and the senior author of the study, the integration of AI assistance not only improved doctors’ accuracy but also fostered greater consensus among them.
While doctors often rely on MRIs to gauge tumor sizes, some tumors are “MRI-invisible,” pointed out Dr. Wayne Brisbane, an assistant professor of urology at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine. He emphasized that AI provides critical support where MRIs fall short.
Brisbane noted that leveraging AI in cancer treatment could enhance patient care, enabling more personalized and effective treatment strategies that are tailored to individual needs, thereby improving outcomes against the disease.
Dr. Shyam Natarajan, CEO of Avenda Health, expressed that the validation of such innovations through studies and recognition by the American Medical Association is empowering for physicians.
According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 1 in 8 men will receive a prostate cancer diagnosis in their lifetime, and 1 in 44 men will succumb to the disease. It is projected that in the US this year, there will be about 299,010 new prostate cancer cases, with 35,250 fatalities.