A healthcare technology company claims its software can more accurately detect the extent of prostate cancer than traditional methods used by doctors.
Avenda Health published a study last month, involving ten physicians who evaluated 50 different prostate cancer cases. The company’s Unfold AI software achieved an accuracy rate of 84.7% in detecting cancer, whereas the manual assessments by doctors ranged between 67.2% and 75.9%.
This research, conducted in collaboration with UCLA Health and published in the Journal of Urology, highlighted that AI-assisted cancer contouring yielded size predictions that were 45 times more accurate and consistent compared to traditional methods.
Shyam Natarajan, an assistant adjunct professor of urology, surgery, and bioengineering at UCLA and senior author of the study, noted that AI assistance not only improved the accuracy of the doctors’ assessments but also fostered greater consistency among the physicians.
Doctors typically rely on MRIs to assess tumor size, but certain tumors can evade detection, which Natarajan and Dr. Wayne Brisbane, an assistant professor of urology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, explained as MRIs being insufficient in some cases. AI technology steps in when MRIs cannot provide clear results.
Brisbane emphasized that the incorporation of AI in cancer treatment could lead to more effective and personalized patient care, resulting in treatments better suited to individual needs and more likely to successfully combat the disease. He noted that AI capabilities extend beyond those of human practitioners.
Avenda Health’s CEO, Dr. Shyam Natarajan, expressed that it is encouraging for healthcare professionals to see such innovations being validated through research and acknowledged by the American Medical Association.
According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 1 in 8 men in the United States will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime, with a 1 in 44 chance of dying from the disease. The organization estimates that there will be 299,010 new prostate cancer cases this year, resulting in 35,250 deaths from the illness.