An artificial intelligence tool named PANDA is transforming early cancer detection in China by identifying lethal tumors that human radiologists often miss. Developed by Alibaba’s DAMO Academy, the system has successfully identified approximately two dozen pancreatic cancer cases since its clinical rollout at the Affiliated People’s Hospital of Ningbo University in late 2024. 14 of them at an early, treatable stage.
Pancreatic cancer is notoriously difficult to detect because it rarely shows symptoms until it is advanced. While high-radiation “contrast” scans are the medical standard for detection, PANDA is engineered to analyze lower-radiation, “non-contrast” CT scans used during routine checkups for unrelated issues like bloating or back pain. By “seeing” subtle grayscale intensity changes invisible to the human eye, the AI effectively turns every routine abdominal scan into a high-precision cancer screening.
Following its success with pancreatic cancer, the DAMO Academy has expanded the technology to include GRAPE, a second model that detects early-stage stomach cancer with 85.1% sensitivity. While doctors like Dr. Zhu Kelei in Ningbo say AI “100% saved lives,” there are ongoing debates about false positives. The AI flagged 1,400 scans to find those two dozen cases, meaning that roughly 1 100 people faced the “terror” of a potential diagnosis and underwent extra testing only to find they were healthy.
Experts emphasize that there has to be a human-in-the-loop and the AI is a “sentinel”, not a surgeon. It flags the risk, but a specialist must always confirm the finding before treatment begins.
The breakthrough gained global attention after the U.S. FDA granted PANDA “Breakthrough Device” status in April 2025.
