SAN CARLOS, Calif. & WATERLOO, Ontario--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Onc.AI, a digital health company developing AI-driven oncology clinical management solutions, today announced it has been awarded a $2 million Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI). This grant will support the further development and clinical validation of Onc.AI’s advanced imaging-AI software for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) clinical decision-making. The NCI’s SBIR program seeks to accelerate the translation of innovative scientific discoveries into clinical practice, emphasizing the significance of Onc.AI’s work in transforming oncology care.
The grant will fund a multi-institutional, prospective clinical study in NSCLC patients using Onc.AI’s AI-based clinical decision support system, which has demonstrated potential in assisting oncologists with assessment of a metastatic NSCLC patient’s likelihood of achieving progression free survival. This initiative builds on the company’s previous success, including results shared at the 2024 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting, where Onc.AI showcased its adjunctive clinical decision support capabilities from a single pre-treatment CT scan.
Onc.AI’s platform leverages deep learning to extract and quantify complex imaging features that are not visible to the naked eye, revealing insights into the patient’s likelihood of responding to immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) monotherapy. By utilizing these subtle radiographic markers, Onc.AI’s solution provides oncologists with more precise information to help guide personalized treatment decisions. This SBIR grant will help the company further validate the AI-based decision support system in clinical settings and expand its potential applications, ultimately supporting oncologists and clinical researchers in improving patient outcomes.
“Onc.AI’s technology has significant potential in the management of patients with metastatic Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer, I am excited for Ohio State to participate in this study where we aim to evaluate clinical utility prospectively,” said Dwight Owen, MD, MSc, thoracic medical oncologist and member of the translational research team at The James Comprehensive Cancer Center at The Ohio State University in Columbus, OH.
“We are honored and thankful for the recognition from the NCI,” added Petr Jordan, Chief Technical Officer of Onc.AI “We are excited about the progress we have made so far and this grant enables us to further refine our technology and explore additional applications of our foundational deep learning radiomics biomarker technology that improve upon existing standard of care tools that support oncologist decision-making.”
About Onc.AI
Onc.AI is a privately held digital health company developing a precision oncology clinical management platform with the goal of transforming clinical decision-making. Onc.AI was founded based on a simple idea: radiomics-based machine learning models can radically improve the ability to predict patient response to PD-(L)1 immunotherapy. Onc.AI aims to develop a first-in-class radiomic solution to address the unpredictable response and non-response to PD-(L)1 ICI therapy to improve outcomes for patients and reduce the cost burden on healthcare systems and public/private payers.
