An artificial intelligence healthcare company claims that its software can identify the extent of prostate cancer with greater accuracy than medical professionals.
Avenda Health recently conducted a study involving ten doctors who evaluated 50 distinct prostate cancer cases. Their Unfold AI software achieved a detection accuracy rate of 84.7%, while the accuracy of the doctors performing manual assessments ranged from 67.2% to 75.9%.
The study, which was conducted in collaboration with UCLA Health and appeared in the Journal of Urology, also demonstrated that AI-assisted cancer contouring resulted in predictions of tumor size being 45 times more accurate and consistent compared to assessments made without AI.
Shyam Natarajan, an assistant adjunct professor of urology and senior author of the study, noted that the integration of AI assistance not only improved the accuracy of the diagnoses but also enhanced agreement among doctors.
Traditionally, physicians rely on MRIs to assess tumor size; however, some tumors are not visible on MRIs. Dr. Wayne Brisbane, an assistant professor of urology at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine, emphasized that AI provides crucial support in these challenging cases.
Brisbane remarked that leveraging AI in cancer management could result in more effective and personalized treatment options, better aligned with the unique needs of patients, thus improving their chances of overcoming the disease.
Avenda Health’s CEO Dr. Shyam Natarajan stated that it is gratifying for physicians to witness such innovations being validated through scientific research and gaining recognition from organizations like the American Medical Association.
According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 1 in 8 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during their lifetime, and 1 in 44 men will succumb to the illness. It is projected that there will be 299,010 new prostate cancer cases in the U.S. this year, with an estimated 35,250 men expected to die from the disease.