A healthcare technology company has claimed that its software can detect the extent of prostate cancer more accurately than physicians.
Last month, Avenda Health conducted a study involving ten doctors who evaluated 50 prostate cancer cases each. The results demonstrated that Avenda’s Unfold AI software achieved an accuracy rate of 84.7% in detecting cancer, while the accuracy of the doctors ranged from 67.2% to 75.9%.
The research, conducted in collaboration with UCLA Health and published in the Journal of Urology, highlighted that the use of AI in cancer contouring led to predictions of tumor size that were 45 times more accurate and consistent compared to traditional methods.
Dr. Shyam Natarajan, an assistant adjunct professor of urology, surgery, and bioengineering at UCLA and the senior author of the study, stated that AI assistance significantly improved both the accuracy and consistency of the diagnoses made by doctors.
Doctors often rely on MRI scanning to determine the size of tumors, but Dr. Wayne Brisbane, an assistant professor of urology at UCLA, noted that some tumors are not visible on MRIs. He emphasized that AI technology provides valuable support in such cases.
Brisbane remarked that integrating AI in cancer treatment has the potential to offer more effective and personalized care, leading to treatment options better suited to individual patient needs and more successful outcomes against the disease.
Dr. Shyam Natarajan, CEO of Avenda Health, expressed the importance of validating such innovations through research and acknowledgment by the American Medical Association.
According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 1 in 8 men will receive a prostate cancer diagnosis in their lifetime, with 1 in 44 expected to succumb to the disease. In the United States, it is estimated that 299,010 new prostate cancer cases will be reported this year, with 35,250 anticipated deaths from the illness.