An AI healthcare company claims its software is capable of detecting the extent of prostate cancer more accurately than human doctors. Avenda Health recently published a study involving ten physicians who evaluated 50 prostate cancer cases each. The findings revealed that Avenda’s Unfold AI software achieved an accuracy rate of 84.7% in detecting cancer, compared to the manual detection accuracy of the doctors, which ranged from 67.2% to 75.9%.
Conducted in collaboration with UCLA Health and featured in the Journal of Urology, the study highlighted the advantages of using AI for cancer contouring, showing that AI-assisted predictions of tumor size were 45 times more accurate and consistent than those made without AI support.
According to Shyam Natarajan, assistant adjunct professor of urology, surgery, and bioengineering at UCLA and senior author of the study, the integration of AI assistance led to increased accuracy and consistency among the physicians, resulting in greater agreement on diagnoses.
Doctors often rely on MRI scans to evaluate tumor size; however, some tumors are not visible on MRI scans. Dr. Wayne Brisbane, an assistant professor of urology at UCLA, explained that AI technology proves beneficial in such cases where traditional imaging falls short. He noted that the incorporation of AI in cancer treatment could facilitate more effective and personalized patient care, leading to treatments that are better suited to individual needs and more successful in combating the disease.
Avenda Health CEO Dr. Natarajan expressed that it is empowering for doctors to witness the validation of such innovation through research and recognition by professional organizations like the AMA.
In the United States, approximately 1 in 8 men is expected to be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime, while 1 in 44 men will succumb to the disease, according to the American Cancer Society. This year, it is projected that there will be 299,010 new prostate cancer cases in the U.S., with 35,250 resulting in fatalities.