A healthcare technology company specializing in artificial intelligence claims its software can identify the extent of prostate cancer more accurately than medical professionals.
Avenda Health conducted a study last month involving ten doctors who evaluated 50 different cases of prostate cancer. The company’s Unfold AI software achieved an accuracy rate of 84.7% in detecting cancer, while the accuracy of the doctors’ manual assessments ranged from 67.2% to 75.9%.
The study, conducted in collaboration with UCLA Health and published in the Journal of Urology, found that AI-assisted cancer contouring resulted in predictions of tumor size that were 45 times more precise and consistent than those made without AI.
Dr. Shyam Natarajan, assistant adjunct professor of urology, surgery, and bioengineering at UCLA and the senior author of the study, noted that the use of AI assistance improved both the accuracy and consistency of doctors’ assessments, leading to greater agreement among them.
Typically, doctors rely on MRIs to gauge tumor size; however, some tumors are not visible on MRIs. Dr. Wayne Brisbane, an assistant professor of urology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, highlighted AI’s ability to provide insights where traditional imaging fails. He stated that the integration of AI in cancer treatment could enhance personalized care for patients, ensuring treatments are better suited to individual needs and more effective in combating the disease.
Avenda Health CEO Dr. Shyam Natarajan expressed that it is empowering for physicians to witness this type of innovation being validated through research and acknowledged by the American Medical Association.
According to the American Cancer Society, about 1 in 8 men in the U.S. will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetimes, and 1 in 44 will succumb to the disease. Estimates indicate that there will be 299,010 new cases of prostate cancer in the U.S. this year, with 35,250 fatalities resulting from it.