AI firm focused on diagnosing prostate cancer via MRI raises $11M
An artificial intelligence firm focused on helping to diagnose prostate cancer via MRI has raised $11.4 million in new funding, leaders announced Monday.
Cambridge, United Kingdom-based Lucida Medical’s diagnostic tool is already deployed by the National Health Service, helping clinicians more quickly pinpoint the disease. It aims to address rising cancer rates at a time when “radiology capacity is failing to keep pace.”
Lucida Medical said it plans to use the funds to pursue regulatory approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration while also expanding its platform to target other clinical concerns.
“Cancer imaging volumes are rising rapidly but reporting capacity is not keeping pace,” Antony Rix, PhD, Lucida co-founder and CEO, said in a statement March 30. “Our goal is to give clinicians faster, more confident decisions while reducing unnecessary interventions for patients.”
The company first launched in 2020 and earned regulatory approval for its key cancer detection software, Prostate Intelligence (or Pi), in 2021. Last year, the NHS announced it was investing some $3 million in using the company’s technology. The project involves deploying the Pi software across up to 15 hospitals. NHS is hoping to diagnose patients within 28 days of primary care referrals, a challenge given staffing constraints and the complexity of interpreting prostate MRIs.
Initial estimates from the health system claimed deploying Pi could save up to 21 days per patient. NHS said it would pilot the software at Leeds Teaching Hospitals, enabling men requiring a biopsy to receive one on the same or next day after an MRI. The technology also could help more individuals avoid biopsies, increasing detection of early stage cancers by between 4% to 8%.
London-based IW Capital led the latest funding round with contributions from other existing investors including VTX Ventures and Macmillan Cancer Support. According to research from the latter, there are 610,000 men living with prostate cancer in the U.K. This figure has surged by 20% over the past five years, with only about 55% of men in England diagnosed before the cancer had spread.
Pi seeks to help by analyzing MRI scans, highlighting suspicious lesions and generating risk scores that support radiologists’ reads.
“Lucida Medical is addressing a critical bottleneck in modern healthcare,” David Fisher, senior investment director at IW Capital, said in a statement. “The company combines deep clinical expertise, strong NHS validation and a scalable technology platform, and we are pleased to support its next phase of growth,” he added later.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.