Avenda Health, an AI healthcare company, claims its software can more accurately assess the extent of prostate cancer compared to traditional methods employed by physicians.
In a recent study involving ten doctors who evaluated 50 prostate cancer cases each, Avenda’s Unfold AI software achieved an accuracy rate of 84.7%. This contrasted sharply with the manual assessments by physicians, which ranged from 67.2% to 75.9% accuracy.
Conducted in collaboration with UCLA Health and published in the Journal of Urology, the study revealed that AI-assisted cancer contouring produced predictions of tumor size that were 45 times more accurate and consistent compared to traditional methods.
Shyam Natarajan, a senior author of the study and an assistant adjunct professor of urology, surgery, and bioengineering at UCLA, noted that the integration of AI assistance led to improved accuracy and consistency among physicians. “Doctors tended to agree more when using AI assistance,” he stated.
While doctors typically rely on MRIs to gauge tumor size, some tumors can be “MRI-invisible,” according to Dr. Wayne Brisbane, an assistant professor of urology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He emphasized that AI could provide valuable insights where MRI fails.
Brisbane also highlighted the potential of AI in cancer care, suggesting it may lead to more personalized and effective treatments tailored to individual patient needs. He remarked that AI could surpass human capabilities in this context.
Dr. Shyam Natarajan, CEO of Avenda Health, expressed that it is encouraging for physicians to witness such innovations gaining validation through scientific studies and recognition from the American Medical Association (AMA).
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 men will succumb to the disease. This year, projections estimate there will be 299,010 new cases of prostate cancer in the U.S., with 35,250 expected deaths attributed to the disease.