How AI Can Detect Lung Cancer At AtlantiCare

ATLANTIC COUNTY, NJ — It wasn't long ago that the thought of artificial intelligence, or AI, doing anything big felt incredibly far off. But as it's been blowing up in all aspects of life lately, the team at AtlantiCare is using it to potentially save lives.

In October 2022, AtlantiCare became the first healthcare system in the Northeastern U.S. to use the Optellum Virtual Nodule Clinic. This innovative AI technology was integrated into the early lung cancer diagnosis program at its Heart & Lung and Cancer Care institutes at AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center.

The Optellum Virtual Nodule Clinic offers the opportunity to spot lung cancer—early—in people who have no known risk factors, symptoms or otherwise may not have cause to be vigilant about their lung health. This happens because AtlantiCare uses the AI-driven technology on every CT and or PET scan they perform that captures all or a portion of the lung, allowing the team to incidentally detect miniscule, suspicious pulmonary nodules at the earliest stages. In addition, Optellum’s integrated Lung Cancer Prediction capability allows the team to prioritize at-risk individuals for monitoring and follow-up care.

“Early-stage lung cancer symptoms are often vague or mimic those of other illnesses,” said Amit Borah, M.D., interventional pulmonologist and leader of the Interventional Pulmonology team at AtlantiCare’s Lung Nodule Clinic. “Through this technology, we are detecting suspicious nodules at earlier stages than ever, which is so critical to saving lives.”

When detected early and treated timely, the survival rate for cancerous lung nodules can be as high as 90 percent.

AtlantiCare pairs the groundbreaking Optellum AI with Ethicon’s MONARCH™ robotic bronchoscopy technology to reach and biopsy the smallest, hardest-to-detect tumors in the least invasive way. With this “one-two-punch” AtlantiCare is taking lung cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment to the next level, saving people from arduous lung cancer treatment and, ultimately, saving lives.

AtlantiCare’s team says that in the six months since they started deploying the Optellum Virtual Nodule Clinic, the technology has made a dramatic impact on their team and patients. During this time, they’ve received an estimated 2-15 CT and/or PET scans per day, prompting the team to notify approximately 17% of patients because their scans detected a lung nodule larger than 8 millimeters. In notifying patients of a potential issue, AtlantiCare also encourages them to follow up with their provider or the Lung Nodule Clinic within three months.

“We have already identified lung cancer and/or suspicious tumors in individuals who have no known risk of lung cancer through this technology,” said Borah. “It will enhance the life-saving progress we’ve experienced since offering robotic bronchoscopy to our patients.”

For more information visit AtlantiCare.org.