IIIT-Delhi researchers develop AI tools to detect early stage cancer with simple blood test
Can be done with basic lab infrastructure
Researchers at the Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Delhi, have developed cutting-edge artificial intelligence tools that can detect cancer at an early stage using a simple blood test, potentially transforming how the disease is diagnosed and treated in India.
The research is led by Prof Debarka Sengupta, Professor of Computational Biology and Computer Science at IIIT-Delhi. Speaking to The Tribune, Prof Sengupta said his team had created an affordable, scalable solution aimed at early cancer detection, even in settings with limited medical infrastructure.
“We have developed an inexpensive, pan-cancer blood test that uses AI to detect early stage cancers by reading cancer-induced changes in platelets abundant blood components that carry detectable signals even in Stage I and II making accurate cancer detection possible with basic lab infrastructure and without the need for high-end experts,” said Prof Sengupta.
The test is based on Tumor Educated Platelets (TEPs), which carry molecular information altered by the presence of cancer. Using artificial intelligence, the test can identify multiple cancer types from a small blood sample, offering a cost-effective alternative to invasive and expensive diagnostic procedures.
Beyond early detection, Prof Sengupta’s lab is also pushing the boundaries of single-cell genomics to understand why cancers often survive treatment and relapse. By analysing vast amounts of cellular data, the team is decoding how different cancer cells behave within the same tumour.
“Our lab develops scalable AI and big-data algorithms to analyse massive single cell genomics data, allowing us to decode cancer cell heterogeneity. By modelling how different malignant and immune cell subtypes interact and survive treatment, we can identify the most lethal cancer cells within a tumour. Our ‘cell algebra’ approach enables virtual addition and subtraction of cell types, offering a new way to prioritise therapies and understand why a single drug cannot eliminate all cancer cells, opening a new window into cancer biology and clinical management,” said Prof Sengupta.
The research also focuses on AI-driven prediction of patient-specific drug response, integrating genomics, chemical data, imaging and clinical information to guide personalised treatment strategies.
Prof Sengupta believes India is uniquely positioned to lead the next wave of innovation in precision oncology, given its scale and growing digital health ecosystem.
“India has a unique opportunity to lead the next transformation in precision oncology due to its large patient population, affordable high throughput sequencing, rich biobanks and digitised clinical data. At GeneSilico, we are building generative, agentic AI models that integrate multi-omics, imaging, pathology and clinical data to predict cancer drug response and transform cancer treatment in partnership with high volume Indian hospitals,” said Prof Sengupta.
Together, these advances place IIIT-Delhi at the forefront of AI-driven cancer research, with the potential to make early detection and personalised treatment more accessible and affordable for millions of patients in India and beyond.
