An AI healthcare company claims that its software is capable of detecting the extent of prostate cancer with greater accuracy than human doctors.
Avenda Health conducted a study in collaboration with UCLA Health, which involved ten doctors evaluating 50 prostate cancer cases each. According to the findings, Avenda’s Unfold AI software achieved an accuracy rate of 84.7% in detecting cancer, while the physicians’ manual assessments fell short, ranging from 67.2% to 75.9%.
The research, published in the Journal of Urology, indicated that using AI for cancer contouring led to predictions of tumor size that were 45 times more accurate and consistent than those made without AI assistance.
Shyam Natarajan, an assistant adjunct professor of urology, surgery, and bioengineering at UCLA and a senior author of the study, emphasized that the integration of AI assistance not only improved doctors’ accuracy but also fostered greater agreement among them regarding their assessments.
Dr. Wayne Brisbane, an assistant professor of urology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, pointed out the limitations of MRIs in identifying certain tumors, referred to as “MRI-invisible.” He noted that AI can effectively address these shortcomings.
Brisbane further stated that the application of AI in cancer treatment has the potential to enhance personalized care for patients, enabling treatments that are more tailored to individual needs and increasing the chances of successfully combating the disease.
Avenda Health’s CEO, Dr. Shyam Natarajan, expressed that it is empowering for physicians to witness such innovations validated through research and acknowledged by the American Medical Association.
Statistics from the American Cancer Society reveal that approximately 1 in 8 men in the United States will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetimes, and about 1 in 44 men will die from it. In 2023, it is projected that there will be 299,010 new cases of prostate cancer in the US, with 35,250 fatalities resulting from the illness.