An AI healthcare firm has announced that its software can more accurately assess the extent of prostate cancer compared to traditional methods used by doctors.
Avenda Health conducted a study involving ten physicians who evaluated 50 prostate cancer cases each. Their AI tool, Unfold AI, achieved an accuracy rate of 84.7% in cancer detection, while the doctors’ manual assessments ranged from 67.2% to 75.9% accuracy.
The research, which was collaborated on with UCLA Health and published in the Journal of Urology, highlighted that integrating AI for cancer contouring predictions yielded results that were 45 times more precise and consistent compared to non-AI methods.
Shyam Natarajan, an assistant adjunct professor of urology and the study’s senior author, explained that AI assistance not only enhances the accuracy of doctors but also increases their consistency in evaluations.
Typically, physicians rely on MRIs to gauge tumor size; however, some tumors do not show up on these scans. Dr. Wayne Brisbane, an assistant professor of urology at UCLA, noted that AI helps identify these “MRI-invisible” tumors.
Brisbane emphasized the potential of AI in cancer treatment, suggesting it could facilitate more effective and personalized care tailored to each patient, ultimately improving treatment outcomes.
Avenda Health CEO Dr. Shyam Natarajan expressed that it is gratifying to see such innovations validated by research and acknowledged by professional organizations like 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 lifetimes, with 1 in 44 men succumbing to the disease. It is projected that there will be 299,010 new prostate cancer cases in the U.S. this year, resulting in approximately 35,250 deaths.