Optellum, a UK-based AI company that works to identify patients with early-stage lung cancer, has entered a strategic collaboration with Johnson & Johnson’s Lung Cancer Initiative, a program that cuts across Johnson & Johnson's consumer, diagnostic, medical device and pharmaceutical businesses.
According to the two organizations, the collaboration will enable Optellum to apply its AI-powered clinical decision support platform with the goal of increasing lung cancer survival rates through early intervention and prevention.
The current five-year survival rate is only 20%, primarily due to most patients being diagnosed after the disease has progressed to an advanced stage (Stage III or IV). However, the survival rate for small tumors treated at Stage IA is as high as 90%.
"I believe the next step in lung cancer diagnosis and treatment is seeing the emerging new technologies coming together,” said Professor Sam Janes, MD, Vice-Chair of the UK National Clinical Reference Group for Lung Cancer and a member of the Optellum Medical Advisory Board, in a statement. “AI is key to enabling integration of imaging, clinical, and molecular data—such as liquid biopsies—to diagnose disease even earlier. This convergence of technologies has tremendous potential to help physicians prevent, intercept, and ultimately cure patients with early-stage lung cancer."
Optellum's commercial software, Virtual Nodule Clinic, achieved US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance in March 2021 and is being implemented in clinical care by leading hospitals initially across the United States, with rollouts in select Asia-Pacific and European markets to follow. It includes an AI-powered digital biomarker based on neural networks and imaging analytics, and it identifies and tracks at-risk patients and assigns a Lung Cancer Prediction score to lung nodules; small lesions, frequently detected in chest Computed Tomography (CT) scans, that may or may not be cancerous.
The Optellum AI will be used to drive accurate early diagnosis and optimal treatment decisions with the aim of treating patients earlier, potentially at a pre-cancerous stage, increasing survival rates.
"This collaboration is a significant milestone for Optellum," commented Václav Potěšil, PhD, founder and CEO of Optellum. "It brings us one step closer to Optellum's vision of redefining early lung cancer treatment by helping every clinician, in every hospital to make the right decisions and provide their patients the best chance to fight back.”
In addition to its lung cancer product portfolio, Optellum is exploring solutions applying the same technology platform to other deadly diseases of the lungs such as interstitial lung disease and COPD.
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