Cancer care has improved in the past few decades, improving the lives of several cancer patients. However, appropriate decision-making facilitated by accurate diagnostics is required to provide effective cancer treatment.
New generation sequencing (NGS) of tumour cells is the best method for cancer diagnosis. But it requires a significant size of tumour cells, can take up to six weeks to complete and can only be done in advanced labs, making it highly expensive.
To address this issue, Imagene, a healthtech startup, has developed an AI-powered image analysis software that can provide cancer diagnostic results in just a few minutes.
But how does Imagene’s AI technology work? And how is it improving the lives of cancer patients? Let’s find out.
Challenges with cancer diagnostics and how Imagene is addressing those
NGS helps in identifying the type of cancer mutation by providing a comprehensive genetic report. Based on the cancer mutation profile, doctors can suggest optimal treatment.
However, only 28% of cancer patients receive a comprehensive analysis of cancer biomarkers, and up to 64% of people with lung cancer don’t receive the available treatments due to incompetent diagnostics.
Here’s how Imagene is addressing these challenges:
Reducing long waiting times with faster diagnostics
The current NGS process is complex and may take up to six weeks to deliver the results. This long waiting period is psychologically difficult for any cancer patient, as they know the cancer is progressing and cannot start the treatment. Meanwhile, the patient’s condition can further deteriorate.
With Imagene’s AI solution, patients receive a cancer mutation profile in just two minutes. As a result, doctors can start treatment on the same day to improve patient outcomes.
Doesn’t require cancer tissue
Cancer mutation profile requires a significant amount of cancer tissue to carry out several tests and understand active cancer biomarkers. Several times, the cancer profiling remains incomplete due to less tissue.
Imagene’s AI analyses digitised biopsy slide images to provide a cancer mutation profile in a few minutes, identifying the mutation present in the biopsy and reducing tissue requirement.
Reduces errors in diagnostics
In many cases, cancer biomarkers have lower sensitivity than expected and require well-trained specialists to observe patterns and create cancer mutation profiles. Poor interpretability can lead to ineffective diagnosis.
AI works well in detecting cancer biomarkers, as it best identifies patterns that may not be evident to humans. As cancer patterns repeat themselves in all kinds of patients, Imagene AI detects them quickly and accurately.
Moreover, Imagene is working with 28 cancer biomarkers in eight different organs and has demonstrated standard and accurate results required to make clinical decisions.
Makes cancer diagnostics affordable and accessible
NGS is highly expensive as it can only be done in advanced laboratories with specialised equipment and personnel. As a result, many cancer patients either find it unaffordable or don’t have access to such advanced diagnostics labs.
As Imagene uses the power of AI and just one biopsy slide image, it reduces the diagnostics cost marginally, making it affordable for the majority of the population. Also, it can be used by a physician on their computers, making it accessible to people across the globe.
“Our mission is to provide healthcare professionals with immediate and accurate biomarker profiling, empowering them with crucial information that enables optimal navigation in the complex cancer diagnosis process.”
– Dean Titan, CEO and co-founder, Imagene.
Note: Imagene’s AI technology is still under clinical research and will be commercialised soon after required regulatory approvals.
How Imagene enables precision cancer treatment?
Until two decades ago, cancer treatments were one-size-fits-all, which were effective for some but not for all patients. However, advancements in DNA sequencing made it possible to develop drugs that can better target cancer cells. Based on the type of mutation, two people with the same cancer may require different treatments. This is precision medicine.
Imagene helps precision cancer treatment by providing doctors with exact cancer mutations and allowing them to recommend effective cancer therapy. Here’s how Imagene saved the life of a woman with their effective cancer diagnostics:
In their ongoing efforts to improve cancer care, Imagene is working with medical centres, labs, and pharma companies and using public data to further develop their technology.
More about Imagene
Imagene is a Tel-Aviv, Israel-based startup founded by Dean Bitan, Jonathan Zalach and Shahar Porat in 2020. Dean Bitan’s mother was diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian cancer. As he navigated the complex treatment and clinical process with her, he tried to understand how cancer treatment was decided and what options did patients have.
“When you need so much data to process and answer the question of whether this is cancer or not, that’s an engineering problem. It’s about the way you collect the data and generate different insights out of it. Of course, you also need biologists and physicians in the picture, but at the end of the day, you need engineering and data science,” he said in a statement to Israel21c.
While Bitan’s mother died years ago, he knew that things should—and could—be better, for both the patients and the physicians, leading to the birth of Imagene.
Imagene has raised $18 million in funding led by Larry Ellison and Dr David Agus, founders of the Lawrence J. Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine, and Eyal Gura, AI imaging pioneer. It additionally raised $3 million in seed funding led by Blumberg Capital in 2022.
“Though cancer is a complex disease we might never fully understand, AI is bringing us closer to considering all relevant parameters that affect it, allowing a move towards theragnostics—a personal treatment strategy that combines therapeutics with diagnostics.” “Imagene’s technology can unlock precise and crucial information in real time, changing the way cancer is diagnosed and treated.”
-Dr. Agus
Earlier this year, Imagene received the Frost & Sullivan 2023 Europe Technology Innovation Leadership Award in AI-based molecular testing for cancer diagnosis, showing the startup’s dedication and potential to transform cancer diagnostics.
Imagene has a multi-disciplinary team—biologists, physicians, data scientists, and software engineers—of over 25 employees working towards a common goal to improve cancer care. This helps Imagene solve complicated problems and drives the startup forward.
The startup is currently working to gain regulatory approval from authorities and hopes to implement its AI solution in hospitals across the globe within the next five years.
“Behind the numbers, and the statistics, there are real patients who are suffering while they wait, and we really need to assist them.
Our scalable technology strives to enable treatment opportunities for all cancer patients, driving precision medicine to be tailored per individual patient condition.”
– Dean Titan, CEO and co-founder, Imagene.
