Optellum Announces Agreement with Bristol Myers Squibb to Leverage AI to Boost Early Lung Cancer Diagnosis

Rapidly growing lung health company aims to redefine early diagnosis and precision lung cancer care using multi-modal artificial intelligence (AI).

OXFORD, United Kingdom and HOUSTON, April 15, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Optellum, a global leader in AI-driven clinical decision support for early lung cancer diagnosis, has entered an agreement with Bristol Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY), to leverage AI in early diagnosis and precision lung cancer care. Under the agreement, Optellum will apply its AI-powered imaging & clinical decision support platform to evaluate the real-world impact on patient outcomes.

Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide, often going undetected until it reaches an advanced stage. Late-stage diagnosis limits treatment options and reduces survival rates. While screening programs exist, they frequently fail to reach the majority of lung cancer patients due to low enrollment rates and patients not meeting eligibility criteria. However, there are 93 million Computed Tomography (CT) scans already conducted annually in the USA for other reasons, such as emergency room scans. Many pre-symptomatic cancers can be identified earlier by automated AI-driven real-time analysis or “opportunistic screening” of those scans.

Optellum’s Virtual Nodule Clinic (VNC) is the first FDA-cleared AI-powered decision support tool for early-stage lung cancer, reimbursed by CMS and implemented by leading health systems. The platform integrates Patient Discovery AI, which utilizes Natural Language Processing to identify at-risk individuals from scan reports across healthcare systems, and a clinically validated Lung Cancer Prediction (LCP) score based on imaging AI and radiomics. This combination of AI tools enables clinicians to identify and prioritize at-risk patients for follow-up by multidisciplinary thoracic oncology teams, potentially leading to earlier intervention and improved patient outcomes.

Optellum and Bristol Myers Squibb are building on an existing research collaboration [1]. As part of this new agreement, Optellum is deploying its VNC platform at multiple healthcare systems across the United States in an effort to democratize access to life-saving early diagnosis. These deployments will assess the platform’s real-world impact before and after implementation. The aim is to generate and promote evidence as well as AI implementation best practices. This will help accelerate deployment of such AI-optimized lung cancer care pathways.

“Early diagnosis is critical in improving survival rates for lung cancer patients. However, 30% to 60% of Stage I-II NSCLC patients still experience recurrence after surgery. The agreement between Optellum and Bristol Myers Squibb presents a significant opportunity to diagnose lung cancer earlier and improve thoracic care pathways so that the right patients can benefit from available modern treatment” – David Carbone, MD, PhD, Professor of Internal Medicine, Director of the James Thoracic Oncology Center at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center.

“The agreement with Bristol Myers Squibb is a key step that helps Optellum accelerate AI-powered early diagnosis, from top academic medical centers to community centers caring for underserved patient populations who can benefit the most,” commented Václav Potěšil, PhD, Optellum Founder and Chief Business Officer. “Our vision is to help drive opportunistic screening across lung cancer and other diseases – helping care teams efficiently find the right candidates for the right treatment, while augmenting their expertise so that every patient can benefit from top quality care.”

[1] Nathan R Hill, Travis L Dotson, Sarah E Maus, Christina R Bellinger, Annika Rings, Lyndsey C Pickup, Noah Waterfield Price, Václav Potěšil, John R Penrod, Kevin Pollock, David P Carbone and Jasleen Pannu.  “1212 Utilization of artificial intelligence support for early lung cancer diagnosis in a lung nodule program: a retrospective cohort study.” Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (2024)

About Optellum
Optellum is a commercial-stage lung health company providing artificial intelligence decision-support software that assists physicians in the early diagnosis of their patients. The company was founded so that every lung disease patient is diagnosed and optimally treated at the earliest possible stage when the probability of better health outcomes is highest. The Oxford-based MedTech company has been the first and only to achieve FDA 510(k) clearance for the application of AI decision-support software in lung cancer diagnosis and is reimbursable under CMS New Technology APC. Virtual Nodule Clinic has been implemented in healthcare systems across the USA and Europe. Optellum has headquarters at the Oxford Centre for Innovation in Oxford, UK, and a US office at the Texas Medical Center in Houston, USA. For more information, visit optellum.com or follow on LinkedIn.

Media Contact

James Hounsell, james.hounsell@evolene.co.uk

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SOURCE Optellum