An artificial intelligence healthcare company claims its software can more accurately determine the extent of prostate cancer compared to human doctors.
Avenda Health recently conducted a study involving ten physicians, each evaluating 50 prostate cancer cases. The findings revealed that Avenda’s Unfold AI software achieved an accuracy rate of 84.7% in detecting cancer, while doctors using conventional methods had accuracy rates ranging from 67.2% to 75.9%.
This study, conducted in collaboration with UCLA Health and published in the Journal of Urology, also indicated that AI-enhanced cancer contouring resulted in predictions of tumor size that were 45 times more accurate and consistent compared to manual assessments.
Shyam Natarajan, an assistant adjunct professor of urology, surgery, and bioengineering at UCLA and the study’s senior author, noted that the integration of AI made physicians more precise and consistent in their diagnoses, leading to greater agreement among doctors when using AI tools.
Dr. Wayne Brisbane, an assistant professor of urology at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine, explained that while doctors typically use MRIs to measure tumors, some tumors may not be visible on MRI scans. In such cases, AI proves beneficial in identifying tumors that would otherwise go undetected.
Brisbane emphasized that employing AI in cancer treatment could enhance personalized care for patients, allowing for treatment plans that are more tailored to individual circumstances and more effective in combating the disease. He stated that AI has the potential to surpass human capabilities.
Avenda Health’s CEO, Dr. Natarajan, expressed that it is encouraging for physicians to see innovations like theirs validated through research and acknowledged by the American Medical Association (AMA).
According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 1 in 8 men in the U.S. will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during their lifetime, and 1 in 44 men will succumb to the disease. It is projected that there will be 299,010 new cases of prostate cancer in the U.S. this year, with an estimated 35,250 fatalities from the condition.