Winning the Fight Against Breast Cancer with 'Internet Plus' and 'Personalization Plus': A Digital Health Innovation Prospectus

Breast cancer has become the world’s leading cause of cancer-related deaths among women, claiming approximately 79,000 lives annually and accounting for 21% of all female deaths from malignant tumors.

According to the "Report on the Current Status of Breast Cancer in China," new diagnoses and deaths from breast cancer in China account for 12.2% and 9.6% of the global totals, respectively. The growth rate of new incidence is twice the global average, and the average age of onset is 10–15 years earlier than in Western countries. Breast cancer has become the most commonly diagnosed cancer among Chinese women, ranking sixth as a cause of cancer-related death... Experts emphasize that early subtyping and treatment of breast cancer are crucial.

Internet+
By integrating the currently popular “Internet Plus” model, VCBeat’s Internet Healthcare Research Institute has reviewed breast health-related apps developed both domestically and internationally. Given the limited number of apps in this field, domestic and international data are combined for analysis. Their functions and features primarily fall into four categories: patient self-management, online consultation, patient communities, and medical information.

Based on the aforementioned classification, VCBeat Research Institute conducted a detailed breakdown of subcategories, revealing that the specialized functions of breast health-related apps are primarily distributed across 14 categories. The top three categories are breast cancer knowledge, early screening, and patient communities. These are followed by categories with comparable proportions, including clinical practice guidelines and news updates within medical information, as well as online consultations and risk assessments. Compared with other single-disease-area apps previously analyzed by VCBeat Research Institute, the functional distribution is nearly identical. This underscores the severe homogenization of healthcare apps at the current stage, highlighting a lack of personalized and customized content.

Given that most medical apps currently on the market generally involve the development of comprehensive features such as remote consultations and text/image, phone, or video consultations, this has led to the niche field of breast cancer remaining relatively overlooked. A review of dedicated breast cancer apps across major app stores reveals that download numbers are mostly concentrated in the hundreds, with some even reaching only dozens. VCBeat identifies four reasons for this trend: 1. Basic functions are largely repetitive, with limited personalization and content that tends to be somewhat flat and narrative-driven; 2. Low interactivity within the apps; 3. Failure to address the key pain points of the user base, as 66% of breast cancer patients in China are aged 40–60, a demographic with relatively low familiarity with mobile products; 4. Insufficient fulfillment of the needs of this user group.

In summary, given that breast health apps target a user base under significant stress, VCBeat recommends incorporating psychological relief elements into product design. Examples include offering user encouragement and establishing breast screening/treatment plans, as well as curating engaging yet professional video collections and producing animated shorts to simulate scenarios such as precautionary measures. Ultimately, all design efforts should remain user-centric, fostering a sense of participation to promote sustainable growth.

Below is an introduction to several popular mobile health products abroad, examining how they leverage the “Internet + Breast Cancer” model.

1、Share the Journey
This is a breast cancer-focused app on the medical research platform ResearchKit, jointly developed by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (affiliated with Harvard Medical School), UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and Sage Bionetworks. Female users are first required to answer questions about their demographic characteristics (such as race/ethnicity, marital status, education level, and employment status). They must then provide daily health data on the Journey module, primarily covering five aspects: fatigue, cognitive difficulties, sleep disturbance, mood changes, and reduction in exercise performance.

Such apps indicate that, although patient willingness to use them is not particularly strong, they are being leveraged in medical research to advance studies on breast cancer treatment.

2、 iTbra
A bra capable of monitoring breast cancer, developed by the startup Cyrcadia Health. Based on the principle that tumor tissue in the breast has a higher temperature than normal tissue, iTbra is equipped with several temperature sensors and works in conjunction with an app and algorithm to assess the wearer’s breast health. It can help women detect potential malignant changes in the breast. The built-in temperature sensors in iTbra can communicate with physicians’ or users’ mobile devices, making cancer detection faster and more comfortable.

The final version of iTbra will determine the presence of cancerous tissue by monitoring tissue blood flow and temperature, with temperature sensors evenly distributed across its internal grid. Currently in the prototype design phase, the device must undergo testing and receive approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) before it can be marketed.

It is understood that the accuracy of mammography, commonly used in hospitals today, is only 70%, with a false positive rate of 43.1%. In contrast, this high-tech bra achieves an accuracy rate as high as 92.1%, while significantly reducing the probability of false positives.

3、Beyond The Shock
A disease support community developed by the National Breast Cancer Foundation, accessible to anyone, where people interact in a Q&A forum using real profile pictures and names. It consists of three sections: Learn, Ask, and Hear. Here, users can learn about the pathogenesis and prevention of breast cancer, ask questions, and review case studies.



4、Inkspiration
A tattoo design app created by Crispin Porter + Bogusky, specifically designed for breast cancer survivors, helps them cover up prominent scars on their bodies. The app features a visual simulation of chest models and offers a wide variety of tattoo designs for users to choose from.



Personalized+

Recent studies have found that, like most malignant tumors, the majority (90–95%) of breast cancer cases are caused by the combined effects of multiple genes and environmental factors, with approximately 27% attributed to genetic factors and 73% to lifestyle and environmental exposures.

According to a research study published in the international journal Nature in 2012, there are currently 40 genes associated with breast cancer. The most well-known are the two major susceptibility genes, BRCA1 and BRCA2; studies have demonstrated that more than 80% of carriers of BRCA1/BRCA2 gene mutations will develop breast cancer. According to cancer news reports from the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), four additional breast cancer susceptibility genes include FGFR2, TNRC9, MAP3K1, and LSP1. Research indicates that a mutation in any one of these genes increases the risk of developing breast cancer by 20%, while mutations in two of these genes can raise the risk by 40% to even 60%.

Therefore, pre-disease screening is crucial. Current preliminary screenings generally include X-ray examination, ultrasound imaging, thermography, near-infrared scanning, CT scans, and tumor marker tests; however, these methods are prone to false-positive results. How, then, can personalized medicine be achieved to provide specific patients with treatment regimens that yield maximum therapeutic efficacy? VCBeat presents several case studies categorized into pre-disease prediction and post-disease treatment.

1. Target Gene Screening, to prevent potential diseases. This is a technology that analyzes gene sequences through blood, other body fluids, or breast cancer tissue. The individual being tested only needs to have 5 milliliters of peripheral blood drawn to undergo whole-exome gene mutation testing for breast cancer susceptibility genes. Subsequently, the risk of developing breast cancer in gene mutation carriers is assessed based on the status of mutations in these susceptibility genes.

2. Individualized Targeted Therapy, which involves designing corresponding therapeutic agents targeting well-defined oncogenic sites, thereby attacking specific breast cancer cells without damaging normal cells. Compared with standard therapies, it offers higher efficacy and often significantly fewer side effects than conventional chemotherapy drugs.

A well-known example is Herceptin, a targeted therapy for breast cancer developed by Roche Pharmaceuticals. Studies have shown that this drug is effective in only 20% of breast cancer patients, but with significant efficacy. To address this, Roche Diagnostics has developed a fully automated HER2 SISH assay, which determines whether the growth factor HER2 is overexpressed in the tumors of breast cancer patients, thereby assessing whether they are likely to benefit from Herceptin treatment.

Another development is a novel targeted therapy for breast cancer discovered last year. Researchers at the University of Queensland found that individuals with low levels of the enzyme PRMT2 may have improved survival outcomes, provided the cancer does not metastasize. The distinctive genetic marker associated with these individuals is the protein RORγ, which serves as a promising drug target. This protein can help clinicians better predict prognosis in certain breast cancer patients and provide actionable recommendations for subsequent treatment strategies.

According to a report released by the U.S. Cancer Monitoring Expert Panel, breast cancer is one of the malignancies most likely to see therapeutic advances in the coming years.

Therefore, to the dreamers striving in this field: penetrate the global landscape of breast cancer—the leading single disease affecting women—with “Internet Plus” and “Personalization Plus.” You might just become the “next Alibaba.”