In a remarkable example of China's medical innovation, entrepreneur Sun Xiaorong has been revolutionizing cancer diagnostics by integrating artificial intelligence, big data, and cloud computing, with her technology now reaching patients in over 20 countries.
Medical science and technology are among the fastest-evolving areas of global innovation. In China, companies like Landing Med, or Wuhan Landing Intelligent Medical Co., Ltd, are breaking new ground, pioneering solutions that combine AI with healthcare to meet the growing demands of early diagnosis and preventive care.
At the heart of this revolution is Sun Xiaorong, founder and chairwoman of Landing Med, who has devoted her career to transforming how the world detects cancer.
From 2022 to 2024, Sun and her team screened over six million women in central China's Hubei Province alone for cervical cancer. Nationwide, that number has now surpassed 12 million cases, dramatically helping to reduce late-stage diagnoses. Her AI-powered diagnostic system digitizes and analyzes cells per slide, flagging potentially cancerous ones after scanning. Sun's journey began in 1996, while she was a research fellow at a Canadian cancer institute, the first time she encountered digital pathology. Inspired by the potential to scale diagnostic services in China, she returned home in 2001 to launch her company with a mission to make cancer screening available, affordable, and data-driven across the country.
Her path wasn't without setbacks. A failed partnership nearly destroyed her fledgling startup, costing her patents and personnel. Instead of giving up, she rebuilt the company from the ground up, this time focusing on proprietary AI and medical hardware. In 2014, Landing Med unveiled its first AI cell diagnostics system, becoming one of the earliest companies in the world to apply AI in cytopathology. A major global milestone came in 2017 in the United States, when Landing Med participated in a high-profile "Human vs. Machine" competition.
"About 20 American pathologists reviewed the slides and our machine's diagnoses were nearly identical to theirs. One U.S. expert said, 'Only China could develop this kind of innovation.' That's because China has a large number of clinically validated patients and its data sources are vast," said Sun.
Sun said technologies such as AI, big data, and cloud platforms are empowering traditional pathology, making cancer cell diagnostics more efficient and more accurate.
Recently, Landing Med became the first medical diagnostics company in Hubei to register its AI-powered data platform as official intellectual property. Sun said the platform will be open to researchers and healthcare providers worldwide.
"We started this project to help ordinary Chinese people. We couldn't have done it without government funding for free screenings and the support of workers from 1,430 grassroots healthcare facilities collecting samples. So as a company, we must find a balance between self-interest and social responsibility," she said.
Today, Landing Med's AI diagnostic platform is covering more than 2,000 hospitals across 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities in China, with over 12 million cervical cancer screenings conducted, significantly reducing the incidence of late-stage cervical cancer. It has also been exported to countries including Brazil, Indonesia, and Pakistan.
Sun credits her success not only to technological ambition but also to China's innovation ecosystem and the country's expansive healthcare infrastructure.
"China has a strong innovation ecosystem, a solid foundation in consumer internet, and a robust industrial manufacturing base. The country's policy of putting the people and their lives above all else offers unparalleled support, an absolute advantage on the global stage," said Sun.
Chinese entrepreneur brings AI-enhanced cancer diagnosis tech to world
