ARTICLE SUMMARY:
Optellum’s Virtual Nodule Clinic, the only FDA-cleared AI-enabled decision support system of its kind, predicts with high accuracy the likelihood that a lung nodule found upon imaging is cancerous or benign and thus helps clinicians expeditiously determine the next best step for patients. That’s only the first application for the company, which, in collaboration with many stakeholders, plans to offer analytics that improve every step of the lung cancer care pathway.
There is so much we don’t know about what causes cancer; why, for example, when two siblings in a family grow up in the same environment with the same diet, one eventually develops cancer, and the other doesn’t. But there’s one thing we know for sure: Outcomes are better when cancers are caught at early stages, before they spread.
The reverse is also true, which is why lung cancer, the second most prevalent cancer worldwide, with 2.2 million new diagnoses in 2020, is described as the most fatal cancer. It is rarely caught early. In almost 80% of cases, by the time lung cancer is diagnosed, it has advanced to stage IV where the five-year survival rate is about 20%, or, worse, 5% if the disease has metastasized to distant regions. It's a double whammy for the patient who gets the news: “One, you have lung cancer, and two, it’s already in stage IV,” at which point there are fewer treatment options and a high likelihood that the patient won’t live out the year. On the other hand, patients treated at stage IA enjoy good outcomes; five-year survival rates are up to 90%.
