“The ultimate goal is to conquer cancer by detecting it early with artificial intelligence (AI) and aiding in the development of cancer treatments with AI biomarkers.”

Baek Seung-wook, Chairman of the Board and founder of the medical AI company Lunit, stated in a recent interview with this publication at Lunit's headquarters in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, “We are focusing on technologies where AI can contribute to cancer patients, from screening to treatment, and subsequently reducing the risk of recurrence.”

Lunit, founded in 2013 by Baek and six graduate students from a KAIST hip-hop club, has concentrated on healthcare, particularly cancer. As a result, they developed diagnostic AI for the most prevalent cancers, lung and breast cancer (Lunit INSIGHT), and an AI platform predicting patient responses to cancer treatments (Lunit SCOPE). Lunit's technology can detect lung and breast cancer signals with 97-99% accuracy without the aid of radiologists and predict which components of which anticancer drugs will be effective for each patient.

This technology is also gaining traction overseas. As of the end of last month, the number of medical institutions adopting Lunit INSIGHT surpassed 10,000 across 65 countries worldwide. Last month, Lunit began joint development of next-generation medical AI solutions with Microsoft (MS) and is expanding its overseas business to the United States, the Middle East, and Europe through Volpara Health, a global breast cancer screening company acquired last year.

Lunit's ultimate goal is to 'conquer cancer.' Early detection of cancer can lead to a cure, and using treatments tailored to the patient's characteristics can increase survival rates. Baek emphasized, “AI allows for more accurate cancer screenings, and the earlier cancer is detected, the less need there is for expensive anticancer drugs, reducing overall treatment costs.”

Lunit is also being utilized in cancer screening programs in numerous countries. Baek stated, “In regions like Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Australia, and Iceland, the AI cancer screening solution is part of national cancer screening projects as a B2G (business-to-government) initiative,” suggesting that South Korea should also consider efficiency through AI cancer screening. He emphasized, “With an aging population, medical expenses are rising while health insurance revenue is decreasing. It is time to adopt medical AI as a national agenda.”

Lunit is expanding its scope beyond diagnostics to treatment. Through the anticancer AI biomarker solution 'Lunit SCOPE,' the company is collaborating with 15 of the top 20 global pharmaceutical companies, including AstraZeneca and Genentech, to develop companion diagnostic products. Companion diagnostics involve testing whether a patient meets the target of a specific treatment.

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