An AI healthcare company has announced that its software can more accurately determine the extent of prostate cancer compared to traditional methods used by doctors.
Avenda Health conducted a study involving ten physicians, each evaluating 50 prostate cancer cases. Their software, Unfold AI, achieved an accuracy rate of 84.7% in detecting cancer, whereas the doctors’ manual assessments ranged from 67.2% to 75.9%.
The research, carried out in collaboration with UCLA Health and published in the Journal of Urology, revealed that the use of AI for cancer contouring resulted in predictions about cancer size that were 45 times more accurate and consistent.
Shyam Natarajan, an assistant adjunct professor at UCLA and the study’s senior author, stated that AI assistance led to increased accuracy and consistency among doctors, who showed greater agreement when using AI tools.
Doctors typically rely on MRIs to gauge tumor size; however, some tumors are “MRI-invisible,” according to Dr. Wayne Brisbane, an assistant professor of urology at UCLA. AI technologies can bridge this gap where MRI methods fall short.
Brisbane emphasized that the integration of AI into cancer treatment could enhance personalized care for patients, allowing for therapies that are better suited to individual needs and more effective in combating the disease. He noted that AI has the potential to exceed human capabilities.
Dr. Shyam Natarajan, CEO of Avenda Health, expressed that it is encouraging for physicians to witness this kind of innovation validated through studies and acknowledged by the American Medical Association.
According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 1 in 8 men in the U.S. will receive a prostate cancer diagnosis in their lifetime, and 1 in 44 men will succumb to the disease. This year, it is projected that there will be 299,010 new cases of prostate cancer in the U.S., with 35,250 fatalities attributed to the illness.