Imagine going for a routine blood test during an annual health checkup and being able to select a screening option that could tell you whether you have early-stage cancer. A Japanese startup is using deep learning technology to realize this dramatic advance in the fight against cancer, one of the top causes of death around the world.

Unique skillsets

PFDeNA Inc. was established in 2016 as a joint venture between DeNA, a Japanese internet giant, and Preferred Networks, Japan’s leading artificial intelligence startup, to solve complex problems. One such problem is cancer detection.

PFDeNA’s cancer research can be traced back to the vision of one of Japan’s pioneering entrepreneurs. In 1999, Namba Tomoko founded DeNA, a mobile and online services company that had extraordinary