South African engineer’s AI test aims to speed up cancer detection
A South African engineer has developed an AI-driven blood test called OncoSeek to detect nine types of cancer at early stages. The test aims to address low screening rates in South Africa, where late-stage diagnosis significantly reduces survival chances and increases treatment costs.
Why it matters
Early detection technologies combined with AI have the potential to drastically improve survival rates and reduce the economic burden on public health systems.
Despite early cancer screening helping to save lives, most South Africans on medical aid who qualify for this have not used the benefits, and often get diagnosed late, leading to exorbitantly expensive treatments and reducing survival rates.
Now, reports News24 , a local engineer/technology entrepreneur has designed a test that can speed up detection of nine cancer types and help save lives.
If the cancer is caught at stage 1, five-year survival is above 90%, but when found late, treatment is harder, more expensive, and far less likely to succeed, and it’s this gap that his newly SAHPRA -registered blood test aims to close.
Pieter van Rooyen, an extraordinary professor of electrical engineering at Stellenbosch University and co-founder of the company xTenure, which has developed the test, said a single blood sample can now be used to screen for nine high-mortality cancers, including several with no routine screening pathway.
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