Cancer treatment has made remarkable progress. Over the past 35 years, cancer death rates in the United States have fallen by 35%, according to a recent report from the American Association for Cancer Research. Better diagnostics, targeted therapies, immunotherapies, clinical trials and supportive care have expanded what is possible for millions of patients. Artificial intelligence could help extend that progress even further.
But there is a major challenge that technology alone has not solved: navigating the healthcare system.
For many people with cancer, getting treatment means coordinating specialists, arranging scans, tracking medications, transferring medical records, understanding pathology reports, dealing with insurance denials and exploring clinical trials. Patients may also have to manage treatment side effects while making difficult decisions about their care.
When someone is already exhausted, frightened or unwell, these administrative demands can become overwhelming.
AI Should Help Patients Navigate Cancer Care
If AI is going to make a meaningful difference in cancer care, one of its most immediate opportunities is care navigation. The goal is not to replace doctors, nurses or patient navigators. Instead, AI can help patients reach the right human support at the right time.
Cancer navigation programs already show strong results. Research cited by Fierce Healthcare reports a 70% improvement in the time needed to start treatment, while 71% of adherence studies found better treatment adherence. In addition, 87% reported improved patient satisfaction and 81% found a positive effect on quality-of-care indicators.
Patient navigators help coordinate appointments, identify obstacles, connect patients with transportation and financial assistance, explain what comes next and make sure important details do not get missed. The problem is that there are not enough navigators to meet the scale of demand.
AI-enabled navigation could help extend these services by managing information, identifying patients who need additional assistance and coordinating care across the cancer journey.
Making Complex Medical Information Easier to Understand
The need for clearer information is also central to the work of XpertPatient LLC, founded by Risa Arin in 2021.
Arin, who had a background in healthcare marketing, patient experience and adult learning, saw a gap in the way cancer information was presented online. Patients had access to large amounts of medical information, but that information was not necessarily personalized or easy to understand, particularly for people already overwhelmed by a new diagnosis.
XpertPatient was designed to provide a more personalized education experience and help patients compare treatment options. Its first release was designed to support 90% of newly diagnosed patients, covering all four stages of the 13 most prevalent cancer types. The content combined written information, illustrations, voice and video.
The approach recognizes that people learn differently. Some prefer reading, while others understand information more effectively through visuals, video or audio.
Why Voice Became Important
Voiceovers became an important part of the XpertPatient experience after early feedback showed that patients found diagrams useful but found them even more informative when voice was added.
Traditional voice recording, however, created a practical problem. Arin initially considered using a friend for the recordings, but the commitment was difficult to scale. With the platform expected to expand, recording every piece of content manually was not a sustainable solution.
Arin explored technology-based alternatives, including video avatars. The team ultimately felt that the avatars did not provide the right experience. The voice solution also needed to be affordable because XpertPatient planned to expand into additional languages and health conditions.
WellSaid Studio provided the voiceover option the team was looking for, with lifelike voices that could be selected according to the tone, pace and subject matter. XpertPatient could also select different voices for different types of cancer content, supporting its personalized approach.
The team could largely copy content from the website into the platform. Because cancer information contains complex medical terminology, pronunciation sometimes required adjustment. The platform’s Pronunciation Library and Respelling features helped control how specific words and syllables were spoken.
AI Can Reduce the Administrative Burden
AI-enabled cancer navigation can support patients in several practical ways. These tools can help people prepare for appointments, organize medical records, explain clinical language in plain English, track medications and upcoming tests, identify missing steps in care and locate transportation or financial assistance resources. They can also recognize situations where human assistance is needed.
Over time, such systems could help patients identify relevant clinical trials, supportive care services, mental health resources, rehabilitation programs and palliative care earlier in their treatment journey.
This matters because navigating cancer care can affect access to treatment. Cancer patients are more than twice as likely to declare bankruptcy as people without cancer, while patients who file for bankruptcy after diagnosis are nearly 80% more likely to die. Screening disparities between urban and rural communities can also contribute to later diagnoses and higher costs.
Cancer Patients Remain Cautious About AI
While AI offers opportunities, cancer patients and survivors are not automatically convinced that the technology will be beneficial.
A 2025 American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network survey of 1,267 cancer patients and survivors found that 51% were more concerned than excited about AI, while only 5% were more excited than concerned. One-third reported being equally concerned and excited.
Their expectations about AI’s broader impact were also mixed. Forty-five percent expected AI’s impact on the United States over the next 20 years to be equally positive and negative. For healthcare specifically, 39% expected a mixed impact, while 33% anticipated a positive impact and 28% expected a negative one.
Cautious Support for AI in FDA Reviews
The survey also examined whether AI should be used in FDA reviews of new drugs and medical devices if funding reductions caused longer review times.
Thirty-six percent of respondents were undecided. Another 34% somewhat supported using AI, 11% somewhat opposed it, 11% strongly supported it and 8% strongly opposed it.
The findings show a careful balance: patients want timely access to new treatments, but they also have legitimate concerns about AI.
Funding for FDA medical product reviews was another important issue. Eighty percent of surveyed cancer patients and survivors agreed that companies making FDA-regulated products should contribute to the cost of FDA’s public health oversight. Fourteen percent were undecided and 6% disagreed.
The Human Element Still Matters
The message across these developments is straightforward. AI can help make cancer care easier to understand, organize and access, but it should not remove people from the process.
Effective AI tools must meet high standards for privacy, security and accuracy. They also need to work for people with limited digital literacy, older devices, limited English proficiency or unreliable internet access.
Cancer treatment has advanced significantly, but scientific progress means little if patients cannot reach, understand or complete the care available to them.
The strongest role for AI may therefore be a practical one: reducing complexity, improving access to information and helping patients connect with the people and services they need. For cancer patients and their families, that support can make an already difficult journey easier to navigate.
