An artificial intelligence healthcare company claims that its software can more accurately determine the extent of prostate cancer compared to traditional diagnostic methods used by doctors.
Avenda Health recently conducted a study that involved ten physicians who evaluated 50 separate prostate cancer cases. The study revealed that Avenda’s Unfold AI software achieved an accuracy rate of 84.7% in detecting cancer, while the accuracy of the doctors ranged from 67.2% to 75.9%.
The research, conducted in collaboration with UCLA Health and published in the Journal of Urology, also highlighted the benefits of AI in cancer contouring. It found that utilizing AI for measuring cancerous growth resulted in predictions about tumor size that were 45 times more precise and consistent than those made without AI assistance.
Shyam Natarajan, an assistant adjunct professor of urology, surgery, and bioengineering at UCLA and a senior author of the study, stated that AI assistance improved both the accuracy and consistency of physicians’ assessments, leading to greater agreement among doctors when AI tools were employed.
Doctors often rely on MRI scans to gauge tumor dimensions; however, Dr. Wayne Brisbane, an assistant professor of urology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, noted that several tumors remain “MRI-invisible.” He emphasized that AI technology fills this gap where MRI fails to provide clarity.
Brisbane remarked that incorporating AI into cancer care has the potential to deliver more effective and personalized treatment for patients, allowing for therapies that are better suited to individual conditions and more successful in combating the illness. He highlighted that AI can surpass human diagnostic capabilities.
Dr. Shyam Natarajan, CEO of Avenda Health, stated that it is motivating for physicians to witness such innovative solutions being validated through research and acknowledged by the American Medical Association.
According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 1 in 8 men in the United States will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime, while 1 in 44 men will succumb to the disease. It is projected that this year, there will be 299,010 new cases of prostate cancer diagnosed in the U.S., resulting in an estimated 35,250 deaths related to the illness.