An artificial intelligence healthcare company has announced that its software can identify the extent of prostate cancer more accurately than human doctors.
Avenda Health recently conducted a study involving ten physicians, each evaluating 50 different cases of prostate cancer. The company’s Unfold AI software achieved an impressive 84.7% accuracy rate in detecting cancer, while the doctors’ manual assessments ranged from 67.2% to 75.9% accuracy.
This study, conducted in collaboration with UCLA Health and published in the Journal of Urology, also revealed that AI-assisted cancer contouring predictions were 45 times more accurate and consistent compared to traditional methods without AI.
According to Dr. Shyam Natarajan, assistant adjunct professor of urology, surgery, and bioengineering at UCLA and senior author of the study, the incorporation of AI assistance not only increased the accuracy of doctors but also enhanced consistency, resulting in a higher level of agreement among physicians.
Typically, doctors rely on MRIs to assess tumor sizes; however, some tumors are not visible in MRI scans. Dr. Wayne Brisbane, an assistant professor of urology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, noted that AI plays a crucial role in situations where MRIs may fall short. He emphasized that the use of AI in cancer treatment has the potential to lead to more effective and personalized patient care, with treatments tailored to individual needs and improved success rates in combating the disease.
Dr. Shyam Natarajan, CEO of Avenda Health, expressed satisfaction in seeing such innovations validated through research and acknowledged by prominent organizations like the American Medical Association.
According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 1 in 8 men in the U.S. will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetimes, and about 1 in 44 men will succumb to the illness. The organization estimates that there will be 299,010 new prostate cancer cases diagnosed in the United States this year, with 35,250 anticipated fatalities from the disease.