An AI healthcare firm claims that its software can more accurately assess the extent of prostate cancer than traditional methods employed by doctors.
Avenda Health conducted a study involving ten physicians who evaluated 50 prostate cancer cases each. The company’s Unfold AI software detected cancer with an accuracy rate of 84.7%. In contrast, the accuracy of the physicians performing manual evaluations ranged from 67.2% to 75.9%.
The research, carried out in collaboration with UCLA Health and published in the Journal of Urology, revealed that the use of AI in cancer contouring resulted in size predictions that were 45 times more accurate and consistent compared to non-AI methods.
Shyam Natarajan, an assistant adjunct professor of urology, surgery, and bioengineering at UCLA and the study’s senior author, noted that integrating AI assistance improved both the accuracy and consistency of the doctors’ assessments, leading to greater agreement among them when AI was utilized.
Typically, doctors rely on MRI scans to determine a tumor’s size; however, some tumors are not visible through MRI, as explained by Dr. Wayne Brisbane, an assistant professor of urology at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine. He emphasized that AI complements traditional imaging techniques by identifying tumors that may elude MRI detection.
Dr. Brisbane highlighted that employing AI in cancer treatment could facilitate more effective and personalized patient care, allowing for therapies tailored to individual needs and increasing the likelihood of successful treatment outcomes. He remarked that AI can enhance capabilities beyond human limits.
Avenda Health’s CEO, Dr. Shyam Natarajan, expressed that it is empowering for physicians to witness such innovations being validated through research and acknowledged by the American Medical Association (AMA).
According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 1 in 8 men in the United States will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during their lives, and 1 in 44 will succumb to the disease. This year, an estimated 299,010 new prostate cancer cases are expected in the US, with 35,250 fatalities anticipated from the illness.