Avenda Health, an AI healthcare company, claims its software can identify the extent of prostate cancer with more precision than traditional medical evaluations.
A study conducted last month involved ten doctors examining 50 different cases of prostate cancer each. Avenda’s Unfold AI software achieved an accuracy rate of 84.7% in detecting cancer, while the doctors’ manual assessments ranged between 67.2% and 75.9%.
The research, conducted in collaboration with UCLA Health and published in the Journal of Urology, also revealed that utilizing AI for cancer contouring improved predictions of tumor size by a factor of 45, demonstrating remarkable accuracy and consistency compared to manual methods.
Shyam Natarajan, an assistant adjunct professor of urology, surgery, and bioengineering at UCLA and the study’s senior author, noted, “The use of AI assistance made doctors both more accurate and more consistent, meaning doctors tended to agree more when using AI assistance.”
While doctors often rely on MRIs to assess tumor sizes, Dr. Wayne Brisbane, an assistant professor of urology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, pointed out that some tumors are “MRI-invisible.” AI technology provides support in situations where MRIs fall short.
“Overall, the use of AI in cancer treatment could lead to more effective and personalized care for patients, with treatments that are better tailored to their individual needs and more successful in fighting the disease,” Brisbane stated, emphasizing that AI can “go beyond human ability.”
Avenda Health CEO Dr. Shyam Natarajan expressed that it’s “empowering for physicians to see this kind of innovation being validated through studies and recognized by the AMA.”
According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 1 in 8 men in the United States will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime, and 1 in 44 will succumb to the disease. This year, it is estimated that there will be 299,010 new cases of prostate cancer in the U.S., leading to 35,250 deaths from the illness.