Oncology Ventures: Investment in Lumonus + April Fool’s Comedy
Investing in data start-ups to improve cancer care and research
Thesis for Oncology Ventures’ Investment in Lumonus
Current State of the Radiation Oncology Market
Radiation Oncology (“RadOnc”) represents one of the most paradoxical aspects of modern healthcare. It is incredibly advanced in its science, yet deeply outdated in its delivery. 50% of cancer patients receive radiation oncology treatment, comprising only 10% of the total cost of cancer care. The market is $7B+, growing at an 8% CAGR.
RadOnc is plagued by manual workflows, staff shortages and disconnected systems. In medical oncology, you write a prescription. The system and drugs handle the rest. In radiation oncology, there is an inherent complexity in execution. A physician prescribes a radiation dose (e.g., 5,000 centigrays). From there, a physicist, a dosimetrist and a team of support staff have to figure out how to safely deliver that dose (over time) based on the patient’s anatomy, tumor location and past treatments.
We continue to make progress on more precise and effective radiation techniques, e.g. proton therapy and stereotactic body radiation therapy. But, the software to ensure comprehensive, appropriate care delivery hasn’t kept up.
There’s no shared operating layer across RadOnc, which leads to care variability, documentation gaps and delays. Physicians and care teams in MedOnc and Surgical Oncology mainly use Epic or Cerner to manage clinical workflows and documentation. In RadOnc, Physicians may chart in Epic or Cerner, but the care team uses Varian or Elekta for actual treatment planning and delivery. On top of that, there is a Linear Accelerator system they have to integrate with, which has its own interface.
Note that there are no plans for Epic to get into this space, as they shared “Epic doesn’t directly support radiation oncology treatment planning… You must use a third-party radiation oncology system…” So the EMR (e.g. Epic), RTM (e.g. Varian) and Linacs aren’t talking to each other — let alone the paper, fax and point solutions that are getting in the way throughout the care delivery journey.
Meanwhile, reimbursement is falling—CMS cut 2024 radiation oncology billing rates by 3.6%, and that’s on top of cumulative cuts of 15–20% over the past decade. RadOnc has 3x the rate of inappropriate denials as the rest of the U.S. healthcare industry. At the same time, workforce shortages are getting worse — 90% of U.S. radiation oncologists report staff shortages.
Enter Lumonus
Lumonus is building the connective tissue of modern radiation oncology with an AI platform that automates and validates radiotherapy treatment plans. Lumonus covers the full care continuum— from pre-treatment (physician consults and prior authorization) through to treatment (plan approval and on-treatment reviews) and post-treatment (outcomes summary and follow-up) support.
Their platform integrates across EMRs, Radiotherapy planning tools and the linear accelerator stack. This is not easy. As discussed above, providers today need to stitch together their own digital infrastructure.
Given opportunity in the industry, Lumonus is focused on 1) standardizing a manual, overly complex workflow and then 2) automating as much of it as possible. They reduce denials, lower operating costs and help to reduce burnout among some of the most highly-trained professionals in healthcare.
From a health economics perspective, the opportunity is enormous. Clinics spend 85% of operating costs on people and technology in RadOnc (compared to 20% in MedOnc), and CMS reimbursement is increasingly tied to efficiency and outcomes. Lumonus not only meets those criteria—it enhances them. They embed value-based care into daily operations.
Lumonus’ AI copilot has led to strong ROI for its partners — saving physicians 40 minutes per patient and automating 80% of plans for dosimetrists. Additionally, it has led to a 70% reduction in dosimetry errors and an NPS of 96%. With 87 partner clinics (and counting) across the U.S., U.K., and Australia, Lumonus is scaling quickly and changing how radiation therapy gets done.
If you are a cancer center, healthcare system or VC fund interested in learning more about Lumonus, please reach out.
Comedy!
Hope everyone has a great April Fool’s day tomorrow. It was tough when April Fool’s day was right in the thick of the first wave of Covid. I remember when Google, notorious for their April Fool’s day pranks, cancelled their bit that year. Was nice to have a break from their consistent, daily prank of pretending to respect your privacy. I get it, nothing screams appropriate crisis response like not animating the letter G.
5 minutes after Google’s announcement, T-Mobile said they were also cancelling their April Fool’s plans, which, as you all remember, was a huge bummer for both of T-Mobile’s customers. That’s like Chuck E. Cheese cancelling their wine tasting. Nobody needs to experience that. The entire T-Mobile brand could be an April Fool’s joke.
To be fair, if they did have something planned, it had to be better than Yahoo’s joke that year. Yahoo released an April Fool’s joke saying that Trader Joe’s is closing all of its stores by the end of the year. Potentially unrelated, but there was a 400% spike in therapy appointments in Brooklyn that day. Yahoo is not a position to make fun of the operational efficiency of another business. That’s like AOL making fun of Blockbuster for being out of touch with what their customers want.
Asks
Please keep the oncology executive intros, start-up referrals and jokes coming
Root for Duke basketball on Saturday