Advancements in technology, testing and imaging have transformed cancer detection and risk assessment, enabling them to be faster and more precise.
But providing patients with a cancer risk score or identifying those at high risk is only one step in cancer prevention. Getting patients to act on their cancer risk and get supplemental screening is the next big leap, and CancerIQ is focused on closing this gap.
The company, which offers healthcare providers a cancer-focused precision health platform, developed new capabilities to provide patients at elevated risk for cancer with "hyper-personalized" patient education, engagement and navigation support. The new features were built on insights from thousands of high-risk patient journeys and backed by behavioral science with the aim to drive sustained follow-through on supplemental screenings that detect cancer earlier, according to executives.
The first release focuses on screening breast MRI, with plans to support additional patient populations, including those eligible for low-dose lung CT.
The American Cancer Society recommends that women at high risk for breast cancer get an annual breast MRI screening in addition to a mammogram. High-risk factors include having a BRCA1/2 gene mutation, a lifetime risk of breast cancer of 20% or greater, according to risk assessment tools that are based mainly on family history, a history of chest radiation therapy before age 30 or certain genetic syndromes like Li-Fraumeni or Cowden syndrome.
But studies show that the number of high-risk women who have breast MRI is low. In one study, only about half of the women identified as high risk said their doctor had recommended a breast MRI screening, and only 32% received a breast MRI.
CancerIQ identified a number of barriers to supplemental breast MRI, including high costs, lack of insurance coverage, anxiety, poor communication with providers and lack of support, Feyi Olopade Ayodele, CEO and co-founder of CancerIQ, told Fierce Healthcare.
"We also learned that at the same time there were several predictors of compliance like having better education, having a family history, having prior procedures and having strong support systems," Ayodele said.
"What we've designed in this product is a guide for patients to not only understand their risk, but a series of educational prompts along the way that addressed some of those barriers. We talk about the cost and actually guide people through what it takes to get prior authorization," she said. "We help them understand the importance of the screening and the difference between, say, a breast MRI and a mammogram. All these things are way better than what people have been getting over the last few years, which is just a score embedded in a mammography report that's difficult to understand or difficult to act on."
CancerIQ was founded in 2013 by Ayodele, Haibo Lu and Ayodele's mother, renowned breast cancer doctor Olufunmilayo Olopade, M.D., to create a precision health platform focused on cancer prevention and early detection.
The company offers software and services to support a more precise approach to screening and cancer risk reduction across any clinical setting. CancerIQ integrates directly into real-time electronic health record system workflows to make it easier for providers to gather comprehensive patient data, automatically map it to the latest evidence-based guidelines and then design tailored cancer prevention plans. The platform streamlines the genetic counseling and testing process to help improve the uptake of genetic testing. Providers can also stand up a high-risk cancer screening program using CancerIQ without EHR integration.
CancerIQ's platform equips providers with the ability to identify patients’ lifetime and hereditary cancer risks accurately. With this information, providers can offer personalized cancer prevention strategies and early detection plans tailored to each patient’s unique risk profile.
The company works with more than 65 health systems and is currently implemented in over 300 clinic locations, Ayodele said. Earlier cancer detection and prevention leads to better patient outcomes and helps bend the cost curve by shifting from later-stage to earlier cancer diagnoses.
"We are a company that's using a ton of information to help patients and providers stay a step ahead of cancer. By understanding people's familial, genetic, lifestyle and adherence risk factors, we can give people a precision prevention or early detection plan that can either shift the stage of their cancer diagnosis or help them avoid it altogether," she said.
With the latest platform updates, CancerIQ is extending its focus from just identifying patient risk to helping patients take that next crucial step. The new capabilities extend the reach of patient navigators by transforming static care plans into data-driven outreach campaigns that move patients from awareness to action, without adding burden to care teams, Ayodele said.
CancerIQ's software now identifies patients eligible for and interested in supplemental screening based on the results of their CancerIQ risk assessment, which incorporates the Tyrer-Cuzick version 8 risk calculator as well as breast density, lifestyle factors, and personal and family health history. It delivers personalized education through outreach and content tailored to a patient’s specific risk profile, barriers and readiness to act.
The platform can create referral letters to help providers secure timely insurance approval and reduce administrative friction and can track patients in real time, from eligibility to appointment completion.
“These new features aim to democratize access to screening, because that’s what shifts cancer to earlier stages and gets us closer to a world where it’s no longer a death sentence for so many families," Ayodele said.
This solution is designed for both resource-limited community sites and leading academic cancer centers.
“We designed this to meet providers where they are, whether they’re a small radiology group without dedicated navigators or a large system looking to scale outreach,” said Laku Adedoyin, chief technology officer at CancerIQ. “We offer multiple EHR integration paths that align with existing systems, infrastructure and clinical workflows—making it easy to embed precision prevention without burdening IT teams.”
"Providers are deluged with so much information and so many prompts and there's a kind of alert fatigue on the provider end of things. That's why CancerIQ has taken a more innovative approach," Ayodele said. "We not only have a solution that's integrated into the EHR for providers, but we heavily invested in that patient experience, so the patient at the same time is getting really understandable lay language on their level of risk and also receiving hyper-personalized education on the importance of following through with it."
CancerIQ has been strengthening its partnerships with health systems. Ardent Health Services implemented CancerIQ's precision health platform and one hospital reported a return on investment after 90 days of implementing it, Ayodele said. Last year, Hackensack Meridian Health launched a comprehensive cancer risk and early detection program powered by CancerIQ's platform.
The company is seeing strong outcomes across its network, Ayodele said, including improving overall cancer screening compliance rates and increasing uptake of cancer genetic testing.
"We're finding, at least in the identification bucket, that almost a third of patients are in that elevated risk category that wouldn't have been found otherwise. That's our first customer promise. Our second customer promise is really around making sure as many of those patients get access to genetic screening or genetic evaluation as possible. Across our customer base, we are routinely doubling patient access to genetic testing," she said.
The company is working with health systems on a large-scale research effort to document the downstream revenue of digitally enabled and genetically informed cancer risk programs. The "Validating Applications for Long-term Utility and Enhanced ROI" (VALUE) in Cancer Risk Programs Study aims to measure the return on investment of genetics programs.
The company is seeing increased interest from health systems, cancer centers and other providers in standing up high-risk cancer screening programs. "There are more and more people that are oncology service line leaders or radiology leaders that are saying, 'Listen, my competitors are now reaching upstream from oncology to engage with patients prior to a cancer diagnosis. That's one of the strategies I have on my hit list. I just need to work with a company that's going to help me get that started.' So that's why they're reaching out to us," Ayodele said.
As healthcare providers face financial and regulatory headwinds, CancerIQ is positioned in an area of healthcare that is resilient to economic shifts, she noted.
"Some of our customers are giving us the signal that the place to invest is in oncology. The right kind of care in the future is going to be this preventive oncology work," she said.