Overview

Cancer is a rapidly growing global problem, with ~20 million new cases diagnosed each year worldwide—projected to exceed 30 million by 2030. Diagnostic biopsies already surpass 100 million annually and continue to rise. Because cancer is time-sensitive, every delay in diagnosis and treatment increases suffering for patients, clinicians, hospitals, and health systems.

Data source: Globocan 2020, Graph production: Global Cancer Observatory, http://gco.iarc.fr - International Agency for Research on Cancer

Data source: Globocan 2020, Graph production: Global Cancer Observatory, http://gco.iarc.fr - International Agency for Research on Cancer

At clinical centers around the world, getting a diagnosis of cancer (biopsy results) generally takes between days and weeks for tens of millions of patients. This results in:

• Poor patient outcomes (fatal metastases can occur in less than 4 weeks due to diagnostic delays (BMJ)

• Lost revenue from patients seeking treatment elsewhere (up to 1M+ per patient)

• Costs incurred from oversampling injury and repeat biopsies

• Lower patient throughput resulting from extended procedure time and diagnostic delays

• Reduced overall clinical capacity due to repeat procedures limiting new patient access

• Reduction in quality of care resulting in patient dissatisfaction and low quality scores for the medical center

• Pathologists and mid-level practitioners are already overwhelmed with work; as the number of biopsies needed to meet the rising cancer rates increases, the supply of pathology practitioners cannot meet the demand.

• Massive anxiety associated with the biopsy procedure alone, complications from the biopsy and the need for repeat biopsies stemming from non-diagnostic results.