An AI healthcare company claims that its software is more accurate in detecting the extent of prostate cancer compared to traditional methods used by doctors.
Avenda Health recently published a study involving ten doctors who assessed 50 prostate cancer cases each. Their AI software, named Unfold AI, achieved an accuracy rate of 84.7% in detecting cancer, while the accuracy of the physicians ranged from 67.2% to 75.9%.
The study, conducted in collaboration with UCLA Health and featured in the Journal of Urology, also showed that using AI for cancer contouring significantly improved predictions of tumor size, making them 45 times more accurate and consistent compared to manual assessments.
Shyam Natarajan, an assistant adjunct professor of urology, surgery, and bioengineering at UCLA and the study’s senior author, noted that AI assistance not only enhances accuracy but also helps physicians reach a consensus in their assessments.
While doctors typically rely on MRIs to gauge tumor size, some tumors can be undetectable through this method, a limitation that AI helps to overcome. Dr. Wayne Brisbane, an assistant professor of urology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, emphasized that AI could surpass human capabilities in cancer treatment, leading to improved and more personalized care.
Avenda Health CEO Dr. Shyam Natarajan expressed that the validation of such innovative technology through studies and recognition from the American Medical Association (AMA) is encouraging for physicians.
According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 1 in 8 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime, with 1 in 44 succumbing to the disease. This year, around 299,010 new cases of prostate cancer are anticipated in the US, resulting in an estimated 35,250 deaths.