A healthcare technology company has announced that its software can more accurately assess the extent of prostate cancer compared to traditional methods used by doctors.
Avenda Health published a study revealing that its Unfold AI software detected prostate cancer with an accuracy of 84.7%. This was significantly higher than the accuracy rates of physicians, who ranged from 67.2% to 75.9% when diagnosing the same cases manually. The study involved ten doctors evaluating 50 different prostate cancer cases.
Conducted in collaboration with UCLA Health and featured in the Journal of Urology, the research highlighted that employing AI for cancer contouring resulted in predictions of tumor size being 45 times more accurate and consistent compared to manual methods.
Shyam Natarajan, an assistant adjunct professor at UCLA and the senior author of the study, noted that AI assistance improved both the accuracy and consistency of the doctors’ assessments, leading to greater agreement among physicians when utilizing this technology.
Dr. Wayne Brisbane, an assistant professor of urology at UCLA, explained that while doctors typically rely on MRIs to gauge tumor size, some tumors are difficult to detect through this method. AI technology addresses these shortcomings and enhances diagnostic capabilities, potentially resulting in more effective and tailored treatments for patients.
Avenda Health’s CEO, Dr. Natarajan, emphasized the significance of this validation from studies and recognition by the American Medical Association in enhancing physician empowerment through innovation.
According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 1 in 8 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime, with a 1 in 44 chance of dying from the disease. This year, it is projected that there will be 299,010 new prostate cancer cases in the U.S., with an estimated 35,250 fatalities attributed to the illness.