A healthcare technology company claims that its software can more accurately determine the extent of prostate cancer compared to human doctors.
Avenda Health conducted a study involving ten doctors 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 detection accuracy ranged from 67.2% to 75.9%.
The study, conducted in collaboration with UCLA Health and published in the Journal of Urology, revealed that AI-assisted cancer contouring predictions of tumor size 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 the study’s senior author, stated that the integration of AI assistance improved both the accuracy and consistency of doctors’ assessments, leading to greater agreement among them.
Dr. Wayne Brisbane, an assistant professor of urology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, noted that while doctors often rely on MRIs to assess tumor size, some tumors can be “MRI-invisible.” AI technology proves beneficial in these cases.
Brisbane emphasized that incorporating AI into cancer treatment could enhance personalized patient care, allowing for more tailored and effective treatments. He stated that AI has the potential to exceed human capabilities.
Avenda Health CEO Dr. Shyam Natarajan expressed that it is encouraging for physicians to witness such innovations being validated through studies and recognized by the American Medical Association (AMA).
According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 1 in 8 men will receive a prostate cancer diagnosis in their lifetime, with 1 in 44 men succumbing to the disease. The organization estimates that there will be 299,010 new prostate cancer cases in the US this year, with 35,250 deaths attributed to the disease.