Cancer care has entered an adventurous new era, one not only defined by novel treatments, but also by digital tools and tactics that streamline the journey to diagnosis. The last decade alone has seen the arrival of AI-enhanced platforms able to identify patterns all but invisible to the human eye, as well as sophisticated wearable technology that captures continuous streams of health data.
But while these tools may be reshaping the broader cancer detection landscape, they have barely begun to address the needs of groups historically overlooked in cancer screening. Young adults, in whom earlier diagnosis could drive timely interventions and better outcomes, have largely been absent from the conversation.
That represents a potentially damaging oversight, given how different these individuals are from the older patients around whom treatment paradigms have long been based. Many young adults with cancer face fertility challenges, as chemotherapy and radiation can compromise their reproductive organs as well as their supplies of eggs and sperm. Many serve as the primary caregivers for young children or aging parents, or both. Many are forced to take time away from work while in the prime of their careers.
“They feel that they have their lives ahead of them,” says Daniel King, MD, PhD, a pancreatic cancer specialist at Northwell Health. “The way we need to engage these patients involves not only fighting the cancer, but also addressing some of the emotional burden.”
And the ranks of young adults with cancer are swelling. Globally, GLOBOCAN estimates show that new cancer cases in individuals aged 20 to 49 years are projected to increase from 3.08 million in 2022 to 3.20 million in 2025, with the most common cancers in young people including breast, thyroid, colorectal, cervical, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
But while the surge in cancer rates among young people has been well-documented, it’s questionable whether treatment and communication paradigms have been adjusted to address it. “It’s not just about identifying these patients, but how we talk to, engage with and treat them, given that they’re having such different experiences than their older counterparts,” says Jack Vance, chief data and activation officer at IPG Health.
That’s why the cancer care ecosystem is investing considerable energy and resources–and hope–in the AI platforms, wearable technology, and connected health data that, collectively, have the power to narrow care gaps for younger patients.
“At the end of the day, what we’re talking about is finding the signal in the noise,” says Franklin Williams, executive director, experience design at AREA 23, an IPG Health company. “The only way to do that is by using large data sets to identify trends. Once you achieve that, you can not only identify younger individuals who may not think they’re at risk, but also engage with them and create content that’s more useful to them.”
More data, better devices
Promisingly, the broader healthcare industry seems ready to seize the opportunity at hand. “We’re all thinking about how we start combining information in EHRs, insurance claims, labs, imaging, genomics, data from wearables, and more, and using it to spot patterns, not just identify red flags,” says Sommer Bazuro, PhD, chief medical officer at IPG Health.
This wellspring of information is helping the industry create risk models which, in turn, can prompt actionable nudges or even offer referrals and schedule mammograms. Those same processes can also offer an advanced level of HCP decision support, in the form of prompts that summarize risk rationale and identify next best steps.
To that point, HCPs aren’t just using AI to analyze medical images or protein levels; they’re using it to delve deeper into patient behavior and identify patterns. Might, for instance, a sustained blood pressure spike signify a potentially more serious health issue?
“The way we’re looking at cancer detection now, versus the way we used to, is wildly different,” says Imre Varju, MD, PhD, group director, patient support strategy at YuzuYello, an IPG Health company. “Fifteen years ago, tumors smaller than one centimeter in diameter were very difficult to detect. Today, with AI-enhanced imaging and molecular diagnostics, we can often identify them much earlier and characterize their biology more precisely.”
AI also allows for more incisive parsing of the data sets, which have grown exponentially during the wearables era. The devices themselves have increased in sophistication and utility: Sensor-enabled smart pillows that enhance sleep by monitoring movement and breathing patterns and then make adjustments (for instance, by altering pillow height), connected toilets that analyze stool and urine for blood and other signs of kidney or colon distress, and more. The most recent iteration of Apple’s AirPods offers heart rate monitoring during workouts; the prospect of continuous blood pressure monitoring is imminent.
The question then becomes how this information, usually captured by patients’ own devices, finds its way into official health channels. “That data has to be in the hands of healthcare practitioners who know how to act on it. If it isn’t, we’re leaving a lot on the table,” Vance says. “It can’t just be people plugging information into ChatGPT themselves and hoping for the best.”
Another related issue is that young cancer patients might choose to share health data with their care teams, hospital systems, and pharmacies… or they might not. “The message they’re telling us is, ‘We are okay giving you data as long as we receive something valuable in return. We will embrace wearables if they are beneficial to our lives,’” Williams explains.
Signals, patterns and nudges
The wealth of information is being effectively harnessed through platforms and tools like IPG Health’s proprietary EPICC suite of products and solutions. EPICC transforms healthcare and audience data into actionable insights that fuel content creation and personalization—at speed and at scale. It also helps identify barriers that prevent people/patients from taking the next step in their health journey.
“The goal is to know these audiences better than anyone else, to reach them wherever they are, and to keep them moving forward,” says Julie Pilon, president of AREA 23, an IPG Health company.
Vance agrees, adding, “For younger populations especially, it’s important to determine exactly where they’re getting stuck. Once we know that, we can come up with a plan to intercept them before they come up against those barriers.”
As for what comes next, the cancer care entities that realize the promise of AI, wearables, and connected data will be the ones that help platforms better know patients through their signals, identify them faster through risk patterns, and motivate them to act via targeted nudges. For everyone in the cancer care ecosystem, the path forward has come into sharper focus: The smarter the deployment of technology, the more effective–and human–the experience of cancer care will become.
“We have the right interaction of technology and will to make this happen,” Vance says.
Williams is similarly optimistic, for the years immediately ahead as well as the more distant future. “I wouldn’t say our ability to use AI and data and wearables is in its infancy. It’s more like we’re teenagers,” he says with a laugh. “We know what we want and we know how to get there. We just have to do it.”
Bazuro frames her outlook similarly. “You have to crawl before you walk and you have to walk before you run,” she says. “We might not be in the running stage right now for our use of AI in healthcare, but we’re crawling pretty quickly.”
The editorial staff had no role in this post's creation.