Breast Cancer Awareness Month: How MedTech and HealthTech are changing the fight, and where the money is going

Every October, Breast Cancer Awareness Month is a reminder of how much work remains, from earlier detection to equal access to care. In 2022, an estimated 2.3 million women were diagnosed with breast cancer, and 670,000 died from it worldwide. Researchers project annual cases will reach 3.2 million and deaths 1.1 million by 2050.

Technology now reaches every stage of the patient journey, from risk prediction and screening to surgery, monitoring and survivorship. Below, we look at where innovation is happening, which companies and organizations are driving it, and whether investment is following.

Screening and risk prediction: AI moves into routine practice

Some of the most visible progress is in imaging. AI that reads mammograms has moved from research settings into routine screening programmes.

Lunit, a South Korean medical AI company, announced on 28 September 2026 that it is expanding AI-powered screening across the Stockholm Region. The expansion builds on Saint Göran Hospital, where the software has supported around 200,000 examinations over three years. A real-world evaluation of about 55,000 women found that AI paired with one radiologist detected more cancers than double reading by two radiologists. In the United States, Lunit reports more than 330 sites and one million screenings annually.

Others are working on the same shift. ScreenPoint Medical says its Transpara software is deployed in more than 30 countries and has processed over 12 million mammograms. Clairity focuses on risk rather than detection. It describes its platform as the first FDA-cleared tool to estimate a woman’s five-year breast cancer risk from a routine mammogram. Feminai is developing a wearable that combines sensors and AI to enable at-home screening.

Precision oncology: monitoring cancer through the blood

For patients with advanced disease, liquid biopsy is changing how treatment decisions are made. Guardant Health has been a central player. On 4 September 2026, the FDA approved Guardant360 CDx as a companion diagnostic for AstraZeneca’s camizestrant, with repeat testing recommended every three months during therapy. It is the first FDA-approved liquid biopsy companion diagnostic for serial testing in breast cancer, based on the SERENA-6 trial.

The approach signals a change in practice. Clinicians can act on emerging ESR1 resistance mutations before disease progression shows up on a scan. The same test was also approved earlier this year as a companion diagnostic for vepdegestrant. Guardant’s Reveal test detects minimal residual disease and monitors recurrence in early-stage breast, colorectal and lung cancers.

Surgery: fewer complications, cleaner margins

The operating room is seeing some of the most varied innovation, addressing the period before, during and just after the operation.

Before surgery: Wound complications occur in up to 30% of breast reconstruction or implant procedures. Plexāā developed BLOOM43, a wearable worn at home the night before surgery. It gently heats the skin at the surgical site to promote blood flow. The company reports its technology decreased the absolute risk of skin necrosis by 24% and reduced follow-up surgeries by 50%. It launched in the US on the first day of Breast Cancer Awareness Month 2025. A multicentre pilot in reconstructive breast surgery, the B4P trial, started earlier this year.

During surgery: Three companies are approaching margin assessment from different angles:

• Clarix Imaging built the VSI-360, which produces a 3D CT image of the removed lumpectomy specimen in the operating room. Tissue analysis can take up to a week, whereas the device enables real-time assessment. In a 200-case comparison, full-3D imaging reached sensitivity up to 94% and specificity up to 85% for margin status. The system is FDA-cleared in the US and licensed in Canada.
• Lumicell takes a fluorescence approach. Its LUMISIGHT agent and imaging device help surgeons detect residual cancer in the lumpectomy cavity. In the pivotal study, 19 patients had negative margins on standard pathology yet were found to have residual cancer that would have gone unrecognized without the system. Labeling states that the absence of a signal does not rule out residual cancer. It is an aid to standard care, not a replacement.
• ARspectra uses augmented reality glasses to display diagnostic data in the surgeon’s line of sight, not on a separate screen. Its flagship device focuses on lymph nodes and blood perfusion, which is particularly relevant to breast cancer surgery.

Survivorship: addressing long-term effects

Innovation increasingly extends beyond treatment. Sub-Q Bionics is developing an implantable bionic pump for lymphedema, a chronic swelling caused by damaged lymph nodes. The company says the condition affects up to 40% of breast cancer survivors, and notes that its products are not yet FDA-approved. It is early-stage work, but it targets a problem that persists long after treatment ends.

The research infrastructure behind it all

Not all progress comes from commercial players. The Cancer Research & Innovation Hub Malta (CRIHM) is Malta’s national platform for funding and coordinating cancer research, aligned with European priorities, and part of pan-European networks such as CANDLE and EU-CiP. National research bodies like this fund early-stage science and build the shared data infrastructure that translational work relies on.

Is investment following?

Yes, but unevenly.

The broader market is up. U.S. digital health startups raised $7.4 billion across 244 deals in the first half of 2026, compared with $6.4 billion a year earlier. This covers digital health generally, not breast cancer specifically. Deals of $100 million or more made up nearly half of all money invested.

Breast cancer AI is attracting meaningful rounds. ScreenPoint Medical announced $14 million in new funding in April 2026, plus $2 million in non-dilutive grants. Clairity raised $43 million in a Series B. Feminai raised a $6 million seed round in January 2026.

Devices and surgical tools raise smaller amounts. Plexāā closed a $4.5 million funding extension ahead of its US launch. Sub-Q Bionics closed a $1.5 million pre-seed round, with investment from Mayo Clinic and Yeda, plus matching funds from the Israel Innovation Authority. These are meaningful sums for the companies, but modest next to the largest digital health deals.

Philanthropy is stepping into the gap. In September 2026, the Breast Cancer Research Foundation launched a $100 million venture philanthropy fund to invest in early-stage startups, with Clairity as its first investment. It aims to bridge what its CEO calls the “valley of death” between early research and commercial viability.

The pattern is fairly clear. Capital is flowing toward AI-enabled detection and diagnostics with defined regulatory and reimbursement pathways. Devices, surgical tools and survivorship solutions often have to work harder for smaller cheques, which is where mission-driven funding is starting to matter.

What to watch

• Whether serial ctDNA monitoring, newly approved in the US, becomes standard for advanced disease.
• More regional AI screening rollouts following Stockholm’s example.
• Results from device trials, including the B4P study in reconstructive surgery.
• Whether early-stage survivorship and surgical technologies can cross the funding gap.

Breast cancer innovation now spans the whole journey, from predicting risk to living well after treatment. The next question is whether funding can keep pace across all of it.

Up next: MedTech World Europe 2026 | Malta

MedTech World returns to Malta for MedTech World Europe 2026, its biggest edition yet. Taking place from 11-13 November 2026, MedTech Malta Week expands the traditional conference into a five-day experience across Malta and Gozo, bringing together investors, founders, healthcare leaders, innovators, and industry experts from across the global MedTech ecosystem.

The week opens with the MedTech World Investors’ Retreat in Gozo from 9–11 November, offering accredited investors and senior industry leaders an exclusive setting for strategic conversations, networking, workshops, and curated experiences. The programme then moves to Malta for a cultural immersion day in Valletta and Mdina on 11 November, before the main MedTech World Europe conference takes place from 11 to 13 November at the Mediterranean Conference Centre in Valletta.

Throughout the conference, attendees can expect keynote sessions, panel discussions, workshops, company showcases, investor meetings, an exhibition floor, and the MedTech World Startup Pitch Competition, followed by the MedTech World Gala Awards, honoring achievements across the global MedTech ecosystem.

Interested in being part of the biggest MedTech World Europe yet? Book your ticket now.