A healthcare technology company has announced that its AI software is capable of detecting the extent of prostate cancer more accurately than human doctors.
Avenda Health conducted a study involving ten physicians who evaluated 50 separate cases of prostate cancer. The results indicated that Avenda’s Unfold AI software identified cancer with an accuracy rate of 84.7%, while the human doctors’ accuracy ranged from 67.2% to 75.9%.
This research, carried out in collaboration with UCLA Health and published in the Journal of Urology, highlighted that when AI assisted in delineating cancer, the predictions regarding tumor sizes were 45 times more accurate and consistent compared to evaluations made without AI support.
Shyam Natarajan, an assistant adjunct professor at UCLA and the senior author of the study, noted that the incorporation of AI assistance improved both the accuracy and consistency of doctors’ assessments, leading to greater agreement among medical professionals.
Traditionally, doctors rely on MRI scans to gauge tumor sizes, but some tumors are not visible on these scans. Dr. Wayne Brisbane, an assistant professor of urology at UCLA, explained that AI can provide critical information where MRIs fall short. He emphasized that the integration of AI into cancer treatment could foster more personalized and effective care for patients, allowing for treatments better suited to individual conditions.
Avenda Health’s CEO, Dr. Shyam Natarajan, expressed enthusiasm for the validation of such innovations through research and acknowledgment by the American Medical Association (AMA).
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. It is projected that there will be 299,010 new prostate cancer cases in the U.S. this year, with 35,250 expected fatalities.