The Future of Prostate Cancer Care

AI imaging tools help determine the best options for treatment

By Beth W. Orenstein via The American Legion

Of every 100 men in America, about 13 will develop prostate cancer sometime during their lives, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Once diagnosed, patients have a number of treatment options, from active surveillance to radiation therapy to removal of the prostate.

Factors to consider include how fast the cancer is growing, whether it has spread, the patient’s overall health and the potential benefits or side effects of treatment. Artificial intelligence (AI) is helping doctors and their patients determine which option is likely to be the most effective.

Currently, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is used most often to help physicians determine the extent of a patient’s prostate cancer. But 68% of cancer volume is invisible to MRI, says Joshua Shubert, chief technology officer at Avenda Health. To choose the best treatment, doctors need to know where all the cancer is, whether it’s confined to the prostate, and which parts are unaffected.

Unfold AI

That’s where Avenda’s new imaging tool, Unfold AI, comes in. It combines multiple patient data points – MRI scans, biopsy results, PSA data and Gleason score – to predict and map tumor margins.

A personalized map is then developed to plan and guide different treatments, Shubert says. For example, Unfold AI can aid in surgical decision-making and planning for a prostatectomy, or help determine the areas to focus radiation.

The software also assists physicians in determining if a patient is a good candidate for focal therapy, a family of newer precision treatments that can have the same efficacy as surgery/radiation with minimal side effects.

A study published in The Journal of Urology in June found that Unfold AI-powered cancer mapping technology improved urologists’ and radiologists’ abilities to determine the extent of a patient’s prostate cancer by 71%.

Unfold AI has been cleared by the FDA for use. A provider list is available at avendahealth.com/unfold-ai-finder. While it is not currently covered by insurance, Aveda is working to expand its network of providers, including to VA.