Cancer needs more than chemo.
Survival Mode
A landmark WHO study found ~40% of cancer cases may be preventable, with lifestyle and environmental factors playing a major role. But functional medicine has yet to reach the US’s 18M+ survivors.
Information Asymmetry
Strained by burnout-induced shortages, modern oncology excels at treating disease but falters in humanizing care. While diet and exercise are shown to improve outcomes, only about half of doctors address them, leaving most patients undereducated.
Becoming self-navigators in the fight, survivors are turning to AI, online communities, and digital therapeutics for support, with 68% finding ChatGPT more empathetic and informative than oncologists.
The journey. With 70% now reaching five-year survivorship, oncology’s blind spot is becoming harder to ignore — exposing an opportunity for integrated, post-clinical care.
Scaling lifestyle cotherapies, Greatly Health raised $4M for digital nutrition and exercise interventions that reduce hospitalizations, while employer-sponsored Perci Health focuses on return-to-life support and Mika (acquired by Outcomes4Me) adds psychological coaching.
Participatory medicine. Platforms like Thyme Care are streamlining cancer navigation, but a growing wave of startups is empowering patients to hack the system.
Upping agency, Khosla-backed Radical Health uses AI to analyze data from 10M historical cases against EHRs, generating personalized reports with treatment paths and relevant clinical trials.
For breast cancer patients, Manta Cares pairs self-advocacy coaching with a specialized chatbot, while Massive Bio partnered with OpenAI to speed consumer clinical trial matching.
Punchline: Cancer cases are rising, but so is survivorship. While pharma still dominates treatment, the care journey must shift from delaying death to adding life.
