Avenda Health, an AI healthcare company, claims that its software can more accurately detect the extent of prostate cancer compared to traditional methods employed by doctors. In a recent study involving ten physicians who evaluated 50 prostate cancer cases each, Avenda’s Unfold AI software achieved an accuracy rate of 84.7%. In contrast, the 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 revealed that AI-assisted cancer contouring resulted in predictions of tumor size being 45 times more accurate and consistent compared to assessments made without AI.
Shyam Natarajan, an assistant adjunct professor of urology, surgery, and bioengineering at UCLA and the study’s senior author, stated that AI assistance improved doctors’ accuracy and consistency in their assessments, leading to a greater agreement among them.
While doctors typically rely on MRIs to determine tumor size, some tumors remain “MRI-invisible,” noted Dr. Wayne Brisbane, an assistant professor of urology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He emphasized that AI technology addresses the limitations of MRIs.
Brisbane also pointed out that employing AI in cancer management could facilitate more effective and personalized patient care, improving treatment outcomes tailored to individual needs. He remarked that AI has the potential to surpass human capabilities.
Dr. Natarajan, the CEO of Avenda Health, expressed how validating this innovation through scientific research is empowering for healthcare providers, especially with acknowledgment from the American Medical Association.
According to the American Cancer Society, roughly 1 in 8 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime, with 1 in 44 expected to succumb to the disease. This year, it’s projected that there will be 299,010 new cases of prostate cancer in the United States, with an estimated 35,250 fatalities resulting from the illness.