An AI healthcare company claims that its software can more accurately assess the extent of prostate cancer compared to traditional manual evaluations by doctors.
Avenda Health conducted a study last month involving ten physicians who evaluated 50 prostate cancer cases. The results revealed that Avenda’s Unfold AI software identified cancer with an accuracy of 84.7%, while the accuracy of the physicians ranged between 67.2% and 75.9%.
The research, conducted in collaboration with UCLA Health and published in the Journal of Urology, also highlighted that AI-assisted cancer contouring was 45 times more accurate and consistent in predicting cancer size compared to manual methods.
“We observed that AI assistance not only improved the accuracy of doctors but also increased their consistency, leading to greater agreement among physicians when utilizing AI,” stated Shyam Natarajan, assistant adjunct professor of urology, surgery, and bioengineering at UCLA, and the senior author of the study.
Typically, doctors rely on MRIs to evaluate tumor sizes; however, 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 noted that AI plays a crucial role in identifying these cases where MRIs may fall short.
“Utilizing AI in cancer treatment may result in more effective and personalized patient care, allowing for treatments that are specifically tailored to individual needs and more successful in combating the disease,” Dr. Brisbane commented. He emphasized that AI can surpass human capabilities in this regard.
Dr. Shyam Natarajan, CEO of Avenda Health, expressed that it is “empowering for physicians to witness this kind of innovation being validated through studies and receiving recognition from the AMA.”
According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 1 in 8 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime, and 1 in 44 will succumb to the disease. It is estimated that in the US, there will be about 299,010 new cases of prostate cancer this year, with approximately 35,250 deaths attributable to the disease.