At Epi One, we are often asked: “When will technology finally solve the challenge of early cancer detection?”
The truth is, it already has.
We now know that cancer leaves a trace in the blood long before symptoms appear. Advances in epigenetics and liquid biopsy techniques can pick up those traces years earlier than traditional screening. Researchers at Johns Hopkins and other leading institutions have demonstrated that cancer DNA can be identified even in blood samples stored years before diagnosis. The science is real, and the technology exists.
So why aren’t we detecting cancer earlier and saving more lives?
Because the real barrier isn’t technology. It’s the system.
The Limitations of Current Screening
Current screening programs are fragmented, expensive, and often inaccessible. They miss too many people, especially those who don’t meet strict eligibility criteria. Tools like mammography, colonoscopy and PSA testing save lives, but they leave large gaps. Too many cancers slip through. Too many diagnoses come late.
Even when promising new technologies emerge, they struggle to move from research labs into clinics. The pathways are slow. The regulatory hurdles are rigid. Reimbursement systems aren’t designed for prevention; they are designed for treatment. And healthcare providers, already stretched, are cautious to adopt tools that require new workflows.
At Epi One, we believe the way forward is not just about better tests. It’s about better systems.
That means making tests affordable and accessible, not just for the few but for the many. It means integrating early detection into routine care, so a simple blood draw becomes part of the annual check-up, no different than cholesterol or blood pressure. It means designing solutions that reduce strain on healthcare providers rather than add to it.
Most importantly, it means putting patients at the center. For early detection to truly work, people must trust the process, understand the benefits, and have access without barriers of cost, geography, or bureaucracy.
Technology AND Adoption
This is the problem Epi One was founded to solve. We are developing epigenetic blood tests that are not only accurate but also scalable, affordable, and practical in real-world healthcare systems. We’re not just focused on scientific excellence, we’re focused on implementation. Because technology without adoption doesn’t save lives.
The stakes could not be higher. In the U.S. alone, more than 600,000 people die from cancer every year. Globally, that number is 10 million. The earlier cancer is found, the better the chances of survival, the less invasive the treatment, and the lower the cost to patients and healthcare systems.
So when we talk about early detection, let’s stop asking whether the technology is ready. It is. The challenge, and the opportunity, is to build systems that deliver it.
At Epi One, our mission is clear: to make early cancer detection accessible, affordable, and routine. Because lives don’t depend on technology alone. They depend on the systems we build to use it.
