Holistic Health Startups Reimagine Cancer Care

As cancer rates climb, new care models are taking shape.

Cause for Concern

Cancer incidence among millennials in G20 nations is on the rise, and the upsurge could add catastrophic weight to a public health burden already past crisis point:

• Incidence among 25–29-year-olds increased 22% increase over the past three decades.
• Over the next 30 years, cancer is predicted to cost the world $25T.
• This year, ~40K UK cancer patients have had potentially deadly delays to NHS treatment, while the cost of cancer to the Australian health system just surpassed A$6B per year.

More troubling, breast cancer – Europe’s most prevalent cancer diagnosis – is increasing in younger women, with the lifetime financial burden of metastatic patients topping $200K.

Loaded lifestyles. Experts are racing to uncover the underlying causes behind the spike, but poor nutrition and lifestyle choices like inactivity and poor sleep are the leading theory.

And with healthcare systems stretched beyond capacity, younger generations are finding themselves isolated and unsupported, leading to delayed diagnoses, treatment and recovery.

Collaborative Care

Plugging gaps, holistically thinking startups refocusing the experience around the patient.

• UK digital cancer support clinic Perci Health provides personalised programmes covering treatment support, rehabilitation and returning to work.
• London’s Entia streamlines monitoring and treatments through at-home blood testing.
• US startup Faeth Therapeutics leverages machine learning and bespoke food-as-medicine meal plans to deprive tumours of the nutrients they need to grow.

Getting ahead of the disease, Spotify co-creator Daniel Ek’s Neko Health recently raised $65M to develop AI-enabled full-body scanning to detect skin conditions, including cancer, and Silicon Valley’s GRAIL has raised $2B to date for early detection diagnostics.

Looking ahead: Despite advances blunting mortality rates, we’re not winning the war on cancer yet. As the number of people with cancer hurtles towards 29M by 2040, a holistic approach that facilitates better treatments, as well as patient care, will not only help to boost patient outcomes but make living with the chronic disease more manageable.