Rethinking Breast Cancer Screening with Technological Innovation

As an entrepreneur specializing in digital health innovation, I wish to share my thoughts on some recommendations recently published by the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care regarding breast cancer screening. These recommendations continue to favor mammography, a technology dating back to the 1960s, despite its numerous limitations and risks. I would like to propose a different perspective that opens the door to innovation.

Limitations of Mammography

Mammography has long been the tool of choice for breast cancer screening. However, this method has significant shortcomings, and the statistics speak for themselves. According to the Quebec Breast Cancer Screening Program (PQDCS), out of 5.9 million mammograms performed between 1999 and 2019 in Quebec, only 34,729 cancers were detected, a rate of about 5 cancers per 1,000 mammograms. Furthermore, 22.8% of exams require additional testing, and 10% of patients receive false-positive results, leading to unnecessary follow-up tests such as biopsies and increased stress. Moreover, mammography entails significant costs and time for our already overburdened healthcare system and exposes patients to radiation that increases the risk of cancer.

These figures clearly show the limitations of mammography as a screening tool and highlight the urgency of exploring more effective and less invasive alternative approaches.

Dr. Guylène Thériault from the Outaouais Campus of McGill Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences mentions: "If 1,000 women aged 40 to 49 are screened over 10 years, at most, one less woman will die from breast cancer because she was screened." This indicates minimal benefit compared to potential risks, underscoring the urgent need for innovation.

And what should we offer to women under 39 who are increasingly at risk of cancer? Dr. Jean Seely, Head of the Breast Imaging Section at The Ottawa Hospital, stated: "The increase is 45% for women in their twenties, 12.5% for women in their thirties, and 9% for women in their forties."

Innovation: The Key to the Future

Recent advancements in artificial intelligence offer promising solutions to improve breast cancer screening. My company, BioTwin, is a concrete example. We developed a human virtual twin technology to assist healthcare professionals in their decisions, notably to help them detect and diagnose cancer. I am very proud to announce that in the context of our research project, BioTwin can screen a cancerous breast profile with results suggesting equivalent or even superior accuracy to mammography. We have established a profile of over a thousand biomarkers and other parameters common to breast cancer in the virtual twins of diagnosed individuals. Subsequently, we recurrently analyze the twins of all individuals in our research project to see if we find the same profile in them. This is the basic idea behind our concept of virtual twins. These virtual twins can be created in minutes through a web portal where people complete their profile and order free collection kits at home. A few drops of blood and/or urine are sent back to our labs, and hundreds of thousands of biomarkers are analyzed by our artificial intelligence. These virtual twins are continually updated with new data from a connected watch, new samples, and other relevant data.

This innovative approach eliminates several risks associated with mammography, greatly optimizes healthcare system costs and personnel, and could radically transform the landscape of breast cancer screening. Unlike mammography, our technology does not expose patients to radiation and does not require trips to a healthcare facility. These results stem from our ongoing oncology research project and demonstrate significant potential to surpass current screening methods while also targeting five other types of cancers, aiding in prognostics & predicting recurrences as well as assisting in treatments.

A Call to Action

Unfortunately, despite these advancements, we struggle to obtain the necessary support to deploy this technology and continue our progress within Quebec's healthcare ecosystem. Should we agree with Dr. Philip Edgcumbe from the University of British Columbia, who said, "Canada is where pilot projects go to die..."? It is frustrating to see that, to succeed in health, Quebec companies often have to turn abroad. For example, the United Arab Emirates not only invited BioTwin to establish itself in Abu Dhabi, but they also invested in our company, provided us with offices, an apartment, and 10-year visas for our employees. Their healthcare system, recognized as one of the most advanced in the world, actively supports innovation and its implementation. We secured two collaboration projects with hospitals within a few weeks, one of which is to validate our breast cancer screening technology. Here, all actors in the healthcare system work hand in hand to promote innovation.

It is crucial for Quebec to adopt a similar approach to promote local innovation. Implementation processes within our Quebec healthcare system are slow and sometimes discouraging. Additionally, the lack of collaboration among different healthcare system stakeholders hinders the rapid adoption of new technologies. We must change this dynamic to reduce costs, delays, and, most importantly, the number of lives lost.

Some organizations seem more concerned with maintaining their funding than supporting innovations that could directly benefit their cause. However, there are notable exceptions such as Marco Décelles from the Quebec Cancer Foundation, Laurent Proulx from PROCURE, and Manon Pepin from the Cancer Research Society, who recently called for modernizing our approach to cancer screening. Unfortunately, these voices are not heard enough.

My Situation in Quebec

Health innovation touches me personally. I recently lost my aunt to breast cancer. Although she was considered at risk, no screening mammography detected her cancer. It was ultimately a throat ache that revealed stage 4 breast cancer, which sadly took her life shortly after. What can be said to her three daughters, my cousins, who are also at risk when the Quebec system could not save their mother?

One of my greatest motivations for founding BioTwin came from the case of my neighbor Jean, a 55-year-old man in great shape and an athlete. It took more than seven months of consultations and medical follow-ups to finally detect stage 4 pancreatic cancer. You guessed it; Jean is no longer with us. He never accepted his cancer nor the fact that he was diagnosed too late, and he always resented the system for not detecting it earlier. I have always shared his frustration and used it as motivation to develop a solution that would better equip doctors to make better decisions, and crucially, to make them earlier.

Conclusion

BioTwin is not just an innovative company; it also offers an opportunity for Quebec to show the world its potential as a leader in digital health. We have already demonstrated the effectiveness of our technology through a clinical study and scientific publication. And we are now ready to deploy it on a large scale. The question is no longer whether human virtual twins will revolutionize the world of health one day. The major countries have all already said yes; including France with its MediTwin & Emma Twin project. The real question is when and who will do it the fastest and the best.

Currently, BioTwin clearly has a head start in the field. And I have no doubt that our company will make a significant contribution and achieve great success internationally. My short-term doubt is more about the implementation of this magnificent innovation right here in Quebec.

If you want to contribute to this medical revolution, I invite you to visit our website www.biotwin.ai to learn more and create your own virtual twin.

Thank you for your attention, and I hope you will share this letter so that it receives the widest possible audience.

Sincerely,

Louis-Philippe No?l

Founder and General Manager, BioTwin

LE CAMP Quantino KPMG Venture Services Fasken Desjardins Investissement Québec Ministère de l’économie, de l’Innovation et de l’énergie du Québec (MEIE) Pierre Fitzgibbon National Research Council Canada / Conseil national de recherches Canada Microsoft for Startups Microsoft for Healthcare Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer of the Université de Montréal ?Ville de Québec Kevin O'Brien Q-CROC Audace au Féminin Pascal Beauchesne Thomas BASTIEN Eva Villalba, M.B.A., MSc., VBHC Green Belt Karine - Iseult Ippersiel Quebec Breast Cancer Foundation shirley dorismond Health Technology Catalyst | CTS Desjardins Caisse des Technologies OQPAC / Organisation québécoise des personnes atteintes du cancer Quebec International Québec VITAE Hub71 Plug and Play Canada Plug and Play Abu Dhabi La Presse Le Devoir Le Journal De Montreal Groupe TVA Radio-Canada Julie Seide Florence Bélanger Association pour la santé publique du Québec Department of Health Abu Dhabi Canadian Cancer Society Société canadienne du cancer - Estrie Breast Cancer Prevention Partners (BCPP) BC Cancer Foundation Breast Cancer Now Breast Cancer Canada 达索系统 3DEXPERIENCE Lab

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