A healthcare technology company has announced that its AI software can more accurately assess the extent of prostate cancer compared to traditional methods used by doctors.
Last month, Avenda Health published a study involving ten physicians who evaluated 50 prostate cancer cases each. The results showed that Avenda’s Unfold AI software achieved an accuracy rate of 84.7% in detecting cancer, whereas the doctors’ manual assessments yielded accuracy rates ranging from 67.2% to 75.9%.
Conducted in collaboration with UCLA Health and featured in the Journal of Urology, the study also indicated that AI-assisted cancer contouring achieved predictions of tumor size that were 45 times more precise and consistent than those made without the use of AI.
Shyam Natarajan, an assistant adjunct professor of urology, surgery, and bioengineering at UCLA and senior author of the study, highlighted that the integration of AI assistance improved both the accuracy and consistency among doctors, leading to greater agreement in their assessments.
Traditionally, doctors utilize MRI scans to evaluate tumor size, but according to Dr. Wayne Brisbane, an assistant professor of urology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, some tumors are difficult to detect through MRI scans. He noted that AI provides valuable assistance in such cases.
Dr. Brisbane remarked that the application of AI in cancer treatment could pave the way for more effective and personalized patient care, allowing for treatments that are tailored to individual needs and more successful in combating the disease, emphasizing that AI can surpass human capabilities.
Avenda Health CEO Dr. Natarajan expressed enthusiasm for the validation of such innovations in the medical field, acknowledging the recognition from the American Medical Association.
According to the American Cancer Society, around 1 in 8 men in the United States will receive a diagnosis of prostate cancer in their lifetime, with approximately 1 in 44 men succumbing to the disease. This year, there are projected to be 299,010 new prostate cancer cases in the U.S., with an estimated 35,250 deaths attributed to the illness.