An artificial intelligence healthcare company has announced that its software can more accurately assess the extent of prostate cancer compared to traditional methods used by doctors.
A recent study by Avenda Health involved ten medical professionals who evaluated 50 cases of prostate cancer each. The findings revealed that Avenda’s Unfold AI software achieved an accuracy rate of 84.7% in detecting cancer, whereas doctors’ manual assessments ranged from 67.2% to 75.9% accuracy.
Conducted in collaboration with UCLA Health and published in the Journal of Urology, the study also indicated that AI-assisted cancer contouring predictions of tumor size were 45 times more accurate and consistent than those made without AI support.
Shyam Natarajan, an assistant adjunct professor of urology at UCLA and senior author of the study, highlighted that AI assistance not only improved accuracy but also led to greater consensus among doctors when making assessments.
Doctors frequently rely on MRI scans to determine tumor sizes, but some tumors can be missed, described as “MRI-invisible.” Dr. Wayne Brisbane, an assistant professor of urology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, noted that AI technology provides solutions where MRIs fall short.
Brisbane emphasized that employing AI in cancer treatment could facilitate more personalized and effective patient care, enabling treatments to be better aligned with individual patient needs and enhancing the chances of successfully combating the disease. He mentioned that AI’s capabilities could surpass human abilities.
Avenda Health’s CEO, Dr. Shyam Natarajan, expressed that the validation of such innovations through research and recognition from the American Medical Association is empowering for physicians.
According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 1 in 8 men in the United States will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during their lifetime, with the likelihood of 1 in 44 men succumbing to the illness. The projected number of new prostate cancer cases in the US for this year is 299,010, with an estimated 35,250 deaths resulting from the disease.