An AI healthcare company claims that its software can more accurately determine the extent of prostate cancer compared to human doctors.
A recent study by Avenda Health involved ten physicians who evaluated 50 different cases of prostate cancer. The company’s Unfold AI software achieved an accuracy rate of 84.7% in detecting cancer, while the physicians’ manual assessments ranged from 67.2% to 75.9%.
Conducted in collaboration with UCLA Health and published in the Journal of Urology, the study also revealed that AI-assisted cancer contouring significantly improved predictions of tumor size, making them 45 times more accurate compared to assessments without AI.
According to Shyam Natarajan, an assistant adjunct professor of urology, surgery, and bioengineering at UCLA and the study’s senior author, the introduction of AI assistance not only enhanced the accuracy of doctors but also fostered greater consistency in their assessments.
Dr. Wayne Brisbane, an assistant professor of urology at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine, pointed out that while doctors typically rely on MRIs to evaluate tumor sizes, some tumors are not visible on these scans. He emphasized that AI can fill in where MRIs fall short.
Brisbane noted that the integration of AI in cancer treatment could offer more effective and tailored care for patients, leading to therapies that better meet individual needs and are more successful in combating the disease. He stated that AI has the potential to surpass human capabilities.
Dr. Shyam Natarajan, CEO of Avenda Health, expressed that it is “empowering for physicians to see this kind of innovation being validated through studies and recognized by the AMA.”
According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 1 in 8 men in the United States will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime, and 1 in 44 will succumb to the disease. There are projections for 299,010 new prostate cancer cases in the US this year, with an estimated 35,250 deaths resulting from the illness.