From Fallen Star to Global Mega-M&A: Tumor Early Screening Poised for Breakout

Is the Early Cancer Screening Market Still Worth Anticipating?

With the delisting of New Horizon Health, known as the “first stock in early cancer screening,” and commercialization hurdles facing early-screening products, some investors and analysts have begun to question the value and prospects of the early-screening market.

Addressing industry concerns and skepticism, Mr. Zhong Jing, Investment Director at SDIC Venture Capital, stated at the 2025 ZAODX Early Screening Conference, jointly organized by Zaoshai.com and other institutions: “Early screening remains promising.”

First, early screening is a rapidly growing blue-ocean market.In 2024, the global market size for early cancer screening was approximately USD 1.45 billion, and it is projected to reach USD 2.94 billion by 2028, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.2%. In China, against the backdrop of high cancer incidence and mortality rates, various clinical guidelines recommend promoting early screening, early diagnosis, and early treatment to improve patient survival rates. For instance, the population in China recommended for colorectal cancer screening and gastric cancer screening each exceeds 600 million, while the population recommended for cervical cancer screening exceeds 400 million. Driven by this substantial demand, the domestic early screening market in China holds broad prospects.

Secondly, early screening possesses the attributes of innovative drugs, aligning with investment trends.From a business model perspective, early cancer screening is similar to innovative drugs in that both feature high technical barriers and require recurring consumption, i.e., regular screening. Meanwhile, early screening also possesses the attributes of consumer healthcare, with substantial market demand.

From an investment perspective, the exit pathways in the early cancer screening sector are well-defined. The listing route via Chapter 18A of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange is smooth, with successful precedents such as MiRXES. Currently, Ameson has also submitted its listing application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. This clear business landscape and defined exit strategy continue to make the early screening market attractive to long-term investors.

Finally, the entry of industry giants and policy-driven initiatives have bolstered confidence in the development of the early screening sector.. In November 2025, multinational giants Roche and Abbott successively entered the early screening market through investments and acquisitions, with Abbott notably acquiring Exact Sciences, a leader in cancer early screening, for $21 billion.Set the Record for the Largest M&A Deal in the Global Medical Device Industry in 2025. The near-simultaneous entry of two industry giants into the early cancer screening market reflects a shared strategic assessment: that early tumor screening is a key driver of future growth in the diagnostics industry. This development has created a more favorable public opinion environment and greater opportunities for market education for innovative domestic companies in the early screening sector.

In addition, the “Proposal of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development” has made deployments for accelerating the construction of a Healthy China and promoting high-quality population development. Lei Haichao, Secretary of the Leading Party Members Group and Director of the National Health Commission, previously stated: “We should focus on making breakthroughs in tackling chronic diseases such as cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases, and diabetes.”Improve the service system for early screening, early diagnosis, early treatment, and early rehabilitation.Strengthen the integrated prevention and treatment of multiple comorbidities to further enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of health outcomes.

Therefore, although the early screening market is undergoing adjustments in terms of coverage, standardization, health economics, and public education, it is currently in a critical phase transitioning from clinical validation to commercial implementation, with broad prospects worth anticipating. In response to the various challenges currently facing the industry, companies are actively exploring diverse pathways to break through these bottlenecks.

Currently, the early screening industry faces multiple pain points.

At the recently held 2025 ZAODX Early Screening Conference, clinical experts such as Chen Wanqing, Zhang Kai, Pan Kaifeng, and Tang Shiqi; early-screening companies including Aorui Biotech, Genetron Health, Ameson, Boercheng, and Mage Gene; and Zhong Jing, Investment Director at SDIC Venture Capital, all shared their industry insights. Based on these expert presentations and discussions with industry insiders, VCBeat has summarized the following key challenges facing the sector:

First, public awareness of early screening is low, with limited understanding of its value and significance; willingness to pay still needs to be cultivated. Among those who are aware of early screening, market penetration is severely constrained by high out-of-pocket costs, as these services are not covered by medical insurance.

Second, the current cost of technical implementation for early screening products remains high. As large-scale screening tools targeting the general population, these products are expected by the market not only to demonstrate high sensitivity and specificity but also to offer low costs and convenient testing procedures.

Third, the development of industry consensus and standards has been relatively lagging, and there is significant room for improvement in clinical trust and acceptance of early screening products. As clinical trust increases, users will be more likely to choose early screening products recommended by physicians with professional endorsements.

Fourth, early screening must be accompanied by protocols for early diagnosis and early treatment to enhance the value of early intervention; otherwise, users or patients will endure distress and anxiety upon receiving a confirmed diagnosis.

To address the aforementioned pain points, innovative early-screening companies have uniformly adopted the strategy of “seeking internal solutions rather than making external excuses,” namely by launching innovative products that meet market demands with low cost, convenient testing, and high accuracy.

Ameson’s early esophageal cancer detection product, Aisining—a blood-based ctDNA methylation assay for esophageal cancer—has obtained CE marking and China’s Class III medical device registration certificate. It covers both esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma, completes single-sample testing in just 4.5 hours, and offers the advantages of simplicity, accuracy, and early detection. The product has completed a large-scale, multicenter, double-blind, prospective study led by academicians. Data show that its sensitivity for esophageal cancer is as high as 87.14%, with a specificity of 92.98%. The launch of this product provides a powerful tool for early screening and diagnosis of esophageal cancer and is expected to complement endoscopic invasive examinations, which are associated with lower patient compliance.

Aorui Biotechnology has independently developed the Liweiping Gene Methylation Detection Kit (PCR Fluorescent Probe Method), accompanied by its proprietary AI model analysis software. By analyzing methylation abnormalities in six liver cancer driver genes—TSPYL5, RASSF1A, DAB2IP, OTX1, PTPN18, and HIST1H3G—the product captures the “molecular traces” of very early-stage liver cancer, providing a high-sensitivity, high-specificity precise early diagnosis solution for individuals at high risk of liver cancer.

Multicenter clinical studies have demonstrated that this product exhibits significantly higher sensitivity for liver cancer, particularly early-stage liver cancer, compared to traditional clinical detection methods such as ultrasound, AFP, CT, or MRI, enabling earlier detection of carcinogenesis. Its overall sensitivity is 93.08%, and its overall specificity is 93.70%. For Stage I liver cancer and small liver cancers measuring less than 2 cm, the detection sensitivity of this product reaches 90.88% and 91.07%, respectively.

Furthermore, by integrating with AI-powered analytical models, this product enables standardization and digital-intelligent transformation across the entire testing workflow. AI-driven data analysis optimizes threshold determination, thereby enhancing detection accuracy. The product is also compatible with mainstream PCR platforms, eliminating the need for additional equipment procurement and reducing costs.

Not only the aforementioned companies, but also early screening firms such as Mirxes, Boercheng, Kangde Biology, Amplicon, and Gaomei Gene have successively launched innovative cancer early screening products.

Overall, companies are primarily reducing the costs of large-scale screening by integrating artificial intelligence, deploying fully automated equipment, and selecting appropriate testing methods. Furthermore, innovative enterprises are continuously enhancing product sensitivity and specificity through technological innovation to minimize misdiagnosis and missed diagnoses, thereby providing higher-quality screening products to the market.

It is anticipated that cancer early screening will accelerate its large-scale adoption across the general population as superior products gain regulatory approval for market launch and are validated by real-world data.

Cancer early screening products are continuously being optimized, but the more critical challenges facing the industry are commercialization and marketization.

Multiple clinical experts believe that early cancer screening is a systematic project requiring the integrated efforts of government, clinical practice, industry, health checkup providers, insurance companies, and the public. Multi-cancer joint screening, large-scale real-world population studies, and support from medical insurance and government policies will be key pathways to promoting the large-scale implementation of these technologies.

This necessitates that early cancer screening enterprises not focus solely on technological breakthroughs, but also coordinate with various industry stakeholders to explore solutions that balance the interests of all parties, thereby promoting the widespread adoption of early cancer screening across the general population.

Mr. Chen Zanquan, founder of Zaoshai Wang (Early Screening Network), stated: “To address the challenges of marketization and penetration in cancer early screening, we must focus on three core elements: payment systems, industry standards, and application scenarios. The key breakthrough lies in building a diversified payment system. We can draw lessons from the ‘medical insurance + commercial insurance’ linkage model adopted in Guangzhou and other regions to lower payment thresholds, while exploring the inclusion of mature early screening technologies into the national medical insurance catalog. At the industry level, we should accelerate the implementation of national-level guidelines such as the Expert Consensus on Multi-Cancer Joint Screening Based on Liquid Biopsy Technology (2025 Edition), unify technical specifications and clinical pathways, and establish industry credibility. Meanwhile, it is essential to systematically develop screening scenarios—for example, by establishing early screening clinics in Hubei Province and building standardized early screening centers in Guangdong Province—thereby integrating screening services into the permanent operational framework of medical institutions and achieving a transition from isolated projects to a systematic engineering approach.”

In fact, innovative enterprises in the early screening field are exploring commercialization pathways through various approaches and have already achieved certain results:

After experimentation, some early screening companies have found that:Population screening models led by local governments or large enterprises have become key scenarios for technology implementation.

For example, the “Colorectal Cancer Screening Livelihood Project in Hanjiang District, Yangzhou City,” led by the Health Commission of Hanjiang District, Yangzhou City, with the National Center for Chronic and Noncommunicable Disease Control and Prevention of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention serving as the technical guidance unit and Genetron Health as the technical support provider, released its three-year summary report in late November 2025.

This public welfare initiative employs Koonen Bio’s multi-gene methylation blood test for colorectal cancer as the primary screening method. If the initial screening yields a positive result, residents can quickly schedule a colonoscopy, thereby establishing an integrated service model encompassing “prevention–screening–diagnosis–treatment–rehabilitation.”

In terms of specific implementation,, this livelihood project was coordinated and mobilized by the government, covering 15 towns, streets, and industrial parks, as well as 146 villages (communities). In urban areas, community workers and grid administrators informed residents via WeChat grid groups about precautions for screening and insurance coverage, with screenings conducted at community service centers near residents’ homes. In rural areas, village officials, grid administrators, and micro-grid administrators carried out targeted outreach through door-to-door visits, with screenings performed at village service centers. Measures such as widespread notification, accessible nearby screening, and convenient single-tube blood testing significantly lowered the barriers to screening.

To further mobilize residents’ enthusiasm, the project emphasized in its program design and publicity that individuals identified as high-risk through screening would receive a government subsidy of 500 yuan for colonoscopy. In addition, some villages partnered with commercial entities such as supermarkets to provide prizes for residents participating in the health screening.

To date, this public welfare initiative has completed free screening for approximately 200,000 registered residents aged 40–74 years, identifying 120 cases of colorectal cancer, 1,942 cases of adenomas, and 859 cases of intestinal polyps. This has truly achieved early detection and timely intervention for cancer, demonstrating significant health economic value.

Du Lingbin, Director of the Prevention and Treatment Department at Zhejiang Cancer Hospital, stated: “The progression from adenoma to cancer typically takes 10 to 15 years. If polyps or early-stage lesions are detected early and resected endoscopically, the cost is approximately RMB 10,000, and a complete cure can be achieved. However, if patients seek medical attention only after symptoms such as hematochezia and abdominal pain appear, the disease has likely progressed to moderate or advanced colorectal cancer, or even distant metastasis. At this stage, treatment often requires a combination of surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and other modalities, with costs potentially reaching tens of thousands or even over one hundred thousand RMB, while therapeutic efficacy is significantly compromised.”

Beyond Yangzhou, Zhejiang Province had previously included colorectal cancer screening for key populations among the provincial government’s livelihood initiatives; Harbin City launched a free testing program for digestive system tumors and the “four highs” (hypertension, hyperglycemia, hyperlipidemia, and hyperuricemia) in 2024, covering 2.4 million people; Ordos City incorporated colorectal cancer screening into its key livelihood projects, achieving comprehensive coverage of the target population aged 40 to 70 across the entire city; Hunan Province initiated an urban cancer early diagnosis and treatment project, with certain areas in the province also piloting the integration of molecular diagnostics into early screening protocols; and the National County-Level Tumor Prevention and Control Center Alliance launched the “Hengju Qianxian Public Welfare Action” in 2025…

Growing participation from more regions means that an increasing volume of real-world data is confirming the health economic value of early cancer screening. This also provides a clear path for the commercialization and rapid growth of early-screening companies: namely, collaborating with local governments to organize the integration of early tumor screening products into public health systems, thereby promoting universal access to early cancer screening. Furthermore, accumulating health economic evidence will lay the foundation for early-screening companies to establish reimbursement pathways through medical insurance and persuade insurance institutions.

Currently, insurance institutions are exploring payment models for early screening products. Mr. Sun Jingxuan, General Manager of the Digital Intelligence Innovation Department at Orient Insurance Brokers Co., Ltd., stated, “The insurance industry needs to leverage early screening products to retain customers, enable precise underwriting, enhance employee benefits, and empower insurance offerings (as value-added services). Additionally, banks and large state-owned enterprises also have demands for customer retention and employee welfare, with budgets exceeding those of insurance companies. The design of insurance schemes incorporating early screening products is still in an exploratory phase. Nevertheless, it is clear that insurance companies seek products that are both low-cost and highly sensitive.”

In addition to livelihood projects,Some companies are also exploring the integration of cancer screening with at-home testing., lowering the screening threshold and improving convenience. For example, the DNA concentration technology and urine testing solution developed by Xiangda Biology can significantly enhance the detectability of HPV and exfoliated epithelial cells through concentration techniques, and reduce detection fluctuations caused by natural variations in urine through physicochemical processing during the concentration process. Based on this technology, women only need to self-collect a cup of urine and send it for testing, without the need for cross-regional medical visits. This allowsHome Screeningbecome possible. To date, screening pilots using this technology have been conducted in Guangdong and Guangxi, with over 95% of participants accepting urine-based HPV testing.

In 2023, leading companies such as Meituan, JD Health, and Ali Health successively launched at-home rapid testing services. With the promotion of at-home testing by these major tech firms, the integration of early cancer screening with at-home testing has become feasible. Previously, Xiangda Biology partnered with Meituan to launch the SnapTube at-home rapid testing service in Hong Kong.

Cancer early screening, as a systematic endeavor, requires not only government and industry promotion but also the support of clinical experts. In this regard, clinical experts are also making efforts to address market pain points. For instance, Professor Wang Shengliang, President of the Guangdong Health Care Association, stated at the 2025 ZAODX Early Screening Conference that the ancient wisdom of Traditional Chinese Medicine in “preventive treatment” should be revitalized in the era of early screening, promoting a shift in health management from “disease detection” to “building a lifelong health barrier.”

Professor Barry Marshall, the 2005 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine, also advocates for integrating modern precision medicine technologies with the ancient wisdom of Traditional Chinese Medicine’s “preventive treatment” concept, to build a more comprehensive and robust system for cancer prevention and control.

Through Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) treatments and other interventions, clinical practice can offer diverse therapeutic options for patients diagnosed via early screening, further enhancing the clinical outcomes of early detection and treatment, thereby increasing the clinical value of early screening.

Overall, driven by multiple factors—including product innovation, the implementation of public health initiatives, the emergence of health economic value, the development of exploratory insurance products covering early screening by insurers, and the expansion of clinical treatment options—2026 is poised to be a breakout year for cancer early screening.