Cancer treatment in America has advanced dramatically. In fact, a recent report from the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) noted that cancer death rates have dropped by 35% in the last 35 years. New diagnostics, targeted therapies, immunotherapies, clinical trials and supportive care options have changed what is possible for millions of patients. Artificial intelligence promises to accelerate this even further.
The paradox of modern cancer care, however, is that the system surrounding all of this groundbreaking science remains extraordinarily difficult for patients and their loved ones to navigate. This is particularly important when it comes to the lack of access for many people to Comprehensive Cancer Centers and NCI-designated Cancer Centers.
If AI is going to transform cancer care, its first test should be whether it can help patients access, understand and complete the care their clinicians recommend. And one of the most immediate opportunities to do that is helping with care navigation.
Anyone who has dealt with cancer knows the feeling of suddenly needing to coordinate specialists, schedule scans, track medications, transfer medical records, understand pathology reports, appeal insurance denials, evaluate clinical trial options, manage side effects and make life-altering decisions. On the worst days, these burdens collide. You or your loved one is sick from treatment, exhausted from lack of sleep, terrified about what comes next, and simultaneously must spend hours on the phone trying to resolve an authorization issue or track down imaging that never reached the next physician.
It leaves you wondering what you’re fighting to survive: the system or the cancer.
Despite strong evidence supporting cancer navigation, adoption has been slowed by limited reimbursement, fragmented information systems and the challenge of scaling a workforce-intensive model across increasingly complex care journeys. AI-enabled navigation offers an opportunity to extend the reach of existing programs by improving information management, identifying patients who need support and helping coordinate care across the cancer continuum.
The burden is substantial. Cancer patients are more than twice as likely to declare bankruptcy as people without cancer, and those who file for bankruptcy after diagnosis are nearly 80% more likely to die. The challenges of navigating care, managing costs and securing coverage can themselves become barriers to survival. Additionally, a recent Prevent Cancer Foundation survey found continued disparities in screening rates between urban and rural populations, which can lead to later diagnoses and higher costs.
Cancer navigation has been shown to deliver a 70% improvement in time to start treatment. Additionally, 71% of adherence studies showed improved treatment adherence, 87% showed improved patient satisfaction and 81% reported a positive impact on quality‑of‑care indicators.
Cancer care navigators serve as invaluable resources for many patients and their families, helping them move through a fragmented system. They coordinate appointments, identify barriers to care, connect patients with transportation or financial support, explain next steps and help ensure critical details do not fall through the cracks.
But there are nowhere near enough navigators to meet the scale of the need. This is where AI can make a meaningful difference. Well-designed AI navigation tools can—and in some cases already are—helping patients and their loved ones prepare for appointments, organize medical records, explain clinical language in plain English, track medications and upcoming tests, flag missing steps in care, identify transportation or financial assistance resources and know when they need urgent human support.
They could soon surface questions patients may not know to ask until it is too late and over time, help patients and their loved ones identify appropriate clinical trials, supportive care services, mental health resources, rehabilitation programs or palliative care earlier in the course of illness.
For patients already overwhelmed physically and emotionally, reducing even part of the administrative burden and providing more understandable education is compassionate care in action.
The goal is not to remove humans from cancer care. Rather, to make it easier for patients and their families to reach the right humans at the right moments when they need them the most.
This is especially important in the United States because cancer care inequities are often reinforced by who can successfully navigate complexity. Patients with knowledge, time, money and advocacy frequently access better coordination and more opportunities for care. Patients without those advantages are more likely to encounter delays, confusion and fragmentation.
AI-enabled cancer navigation solutions must meet high standards for privacy, security and accuracy. And they must work for people with limited digital literacy, older devices, limited English proficiency or inconsistent internet access.
America has invested enormously in advancing cancer science and treatments. But scientific progress alone is not enough if patients cannot reliably navigate the care that already exists. It’s tragic when a cancer diagnosis comes and there is not yet a proven effective treatment or cure. It’s inexcusable when that treatment or cure exists, but accessing it is so hard that a patient with cancer dies anyway.
There are a lot of concerns about how AI can and should be used in healthcare. But helping patients and their families navigate their care to ensure that all the benefits of modern cancer care are accessed is one that AI can address right now.
Jennifer Goldsack is founder and CEO of the Digital Medicine Society (DiMe). Lee A. Fleisher, M.D., served as chief medical officer and director of the Center for Clinical Standards and Quality at CMS from 2020 to 2023. He is a practicing anesthesiologist, emeritus professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and co-founder of Rubrum Advising.
Editor's note: Fleisher is a board member of Hurone.ai, an AI platform for cancer care coordination.