Devices & Diagnostics, Health Services, Health Tech

CancerIQ raises $14M to grow its platform focused on early detection and prevention

The Series B financing round was co-led by Merck Global Health Innovation Fund and Amgen Ventures. The company's Black female co-founders have prioritized overcoming systemic barriers to cancer prevention that have led to higher death rates for minorities.

CancerIQ announced Thursday that it has raised $14 million to grow its precision health platform focused on early cancer detection and prevention. The Chicago-based startup said the funding will also help the company strengthen and broaden its partnerships, including expanding its health system network, as it seeks to eliminate disparities in care.

The Series B financing round was co-led by Merck Global Health Innovation Fund and Amgen Ventures. McKesson Ventures, OSF Ventures — the investment arm of Peoria, Illinois-based OSF HealthCare and a customer of CancerIQ — and CancerIQ’s Series A lead investor, HealthX Ventures, also participated in the funding round. The money will be partly used to expand its workforce, as the company plans to hire 50 workers in 2022. 

CancerIQ takes a precision medicine approach to prevention with its platform, which the company said is used by clinicians at more than 180 locations across the U.S. The platform, which is embedded directly into EMR workflows, offers screening tools to help providers engage patients and understand their individual risk for cancer, considering factors like family history, genetics and behavior.

The platform is designed to help connect those patients with corresponding care pathways, based on guidelines and the latest clinical evidence. Those pathways range from undergoing MRIs to getting at-home screening kits, making lifestyle changes and enrolling in clinical trials as well as receiving educational resources, according to the company.

The company’s Black female co-founders have prioritized overcoming systemic barriers to cancer prevention that have led to higher death rates for minorities. Black women are more likely to be diagnosed with advanced stages of breast cancer, for example, and they’re 41% more likely to die of breast cancer than White women, according to the latest statistics from the American Cancer Society.

“The cancer research community has made great strides in cancer prevention and treatment,” said Dr. Olufunmilayo (Funmi) Olopade, co-founder and chief scientific advisor of CancerIQ, in a statement. “But now we must accelerate and scale the clinical pipeline, so a diverse population of patients — those receiving care at academic medical centers and community hospitals alike — can benefit from these advances.”

Olopade served on the National Cancer Advisory Board and is an expert on cancer genetics and precision oncology.

CancerIQ’s new funding announcement comes just one month after a report from the President’s Cancer Panel called for immediate action to be taken to alleviate disparities. Specifically the report cited a need to close gaps in cancer screening, risk assessment and timely follow-up care, especially among diverse, uninsured or underinsured and rural populations.

“CancerIQ’s vision is to end cancer as we know it by eliminating health disparities and democratizing access to the latest advances in cancer early detection and prevention,” said Feyi Olopade Ayodele, co-founder and CEO of CancerIQ, in a statement.

Screening and prevention services have taken a backseat during the pandemic, so it remains to be seen whether the availability of novel cancer prevention tools like CancerIQ claims to provide will move the needle in terms of actual adoption. But it’s clear early detection is key to survival in cancer in general. Not surprisingly, there are several startups from liquid biopsy firms to cancer-risk assessment companies to precision imaging companies that dot the landscape all with the goal to end cancer.

Photo: utah778, Getty Images

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