Avenda Health, an AI healthcare company, claims that its software can more accurately assess the scope of prostate cancer than human doctors.
A recent study conducted by Avenda involved ten doctors who evaluated 50 prostate cancer cases each. The results indicated that Avenda’s Unfold AI software achieved an accuracy rate of 84.7% in detecting cancer, whereas the doctors’ manual assessments ranged from 67.2% to 75.9% accuracy.
The study, a collaboration with UCLA Health and published in the Journal of Urology, also highlighted that AI-assisted cancer contouring predictions of tumor size 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 the study’s senior author, noted that AI support improved both the accuracy and consistency among doctors, leading to greater consensus in their assessments.
According to Dr. Wayne Brisbane, an assistant professor of urology at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine, many tumors are not visible via MRI scans. The AI technology offers a solution for these “MRI-invisible” tumors. He added that incorporating AI in cancer treatment can result in more effective, personalized care and more successful outcomes for patients.
Avenda Health CEO Dr. Shyam Natarajan expressed that it is encouraging for physicians to see such innovations validated through research and recognized by the American Medical Association.
The American Cancer Society indicates that approximately one in eight men in the U.S. will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime, and one in 44 men will die from it. This year, it is estimated that there will be 299,010 new prostate cancer cases in the U.S., with 35,250 deaths attributed to the disease.