An artificial intelligence healthcare company claims that its software can more accurately determine the extent of prostate cancer compared to traditional methods used by doctors.
Avenda Health conducted a study last month involving ten physicians who reviewed 50 prostate cancer cases each. The study found that Avenda’s Unfold AI software achieved an accuracy rate of 84.7% in detecting cancer, while the accuracy of the physicians ranged between 67.2% and 75.9%.
Published in the Journal of Urology, the research was conducted in collaboration with UCLA Health. It highlighted that using AI for cancer contouring resulted in predictions about tumor size being 45 times more accurate compared to manual assessments.
According to Shyam Natarajan, an assistant adjunct professor at UCLA and the study’s senior author, the integration of AI assistance not only improved accuracy but also made physicians more consistent in their assessments, leading to greater agreement among doctors when utilizing AI.
Typically, doctors rely on MRIs to gauge tumor sizes; however, some tumors are “MRI-invisible,” pointed out Dr. Wayne Brisbane, an assistant professor of urology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. In such cases, AI can provide crucial assistance where MRIs fall short.
Brisbane commented that the implementation of AI in cancer care could enhance the effectiveness of treatments, making them more personalized and better suited to individual patient needs. He emphasized that AI has the potential to exceed human capabilities in this regard.
Dr. Shyam Natarajan, CEO of Avenda Health, expressed that it is empowering for physicians to witness such innovations being validated through research and recognized by the American Medical Association.
According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 1 in 8 men in the U.S. will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime, and about 1 in 44 will die from it. This year, it is projected that there will be 299,010 new prostate cancer cases in the U.S., with an estimated 35,250 fatalities resulting from the disease.