Startup BeSound seeks to reduce breast cancer in young women

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Breast cancer screening has long been skewed toward older patients who are more likely to be diagnosed with the disease. But in recent years, rates have jumped among younger women.

As breast cancer cases have risen 1% among women over 50 each year from 2012 to 2022, rates also rose 1.4% in women under 50, according to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. In fact, breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among US women ages 20 to 49, the nonprofit also reported.

That’s why Bailey Renger created BeSound. The startup officially launched on Sept. 30 with $6.8 million in seed funding, co-led by Overwater Ventures, Kindred Ventures, and Muse Capital, according to a press release. BeSound aims to detect and prevent breast cancer in young women by providing imaging and results within 24–48 hours for an up-front cost of $350. The process can typically take a few days, the National Breast Cancer Foundation wrote on its site.

Renger previously worked as a physicist, quantum computing research fellow at Harvard University, and NASA researcher.

Renger created BeSound due to her own frustrations during a cancer scare. “I was dismissed. I didn’t get an imaging order that I wanted and had to fight for it,” she said.

Once she got the scan, her medical team found a solid mass but couldn’t tell her if it was malignant.

“That’s at the center of BeSound: making imaging more accessible to women with better imaging technology,” she said.

Renger, a young woman herself at 26, spoke with Healthcare Brew about her plans for the company.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

How does BeSound work?

Women book ultrasound scans on our website and then find nearby partner locations. Initially, we’ll just have one [in Los Angeles, opening this fall] but as we scale, there’ll be multiple to choose from. A clinician will review eligibility for that scan. It’s a 20-minute scan. It’s radiation free, no pain.

The results are reviewed by a board-certified breast radiologist and displayed in the BeSound platform to women within 24–48 hours of the scan. If there is no finding, that’s the final step. If there is a finding, and if eligible, then there’s an order placed by the clinician for an ultrasound plus near-infrared light, a diagnostic imaging test, and helping to characterize what was found. Is it a cyst? Is it benign? Is it fibroadenoma? Or is it concerning? That second scan helps to reduce unnecessary biopsies and to really just give women peace of mind and empower them with data on what’s actually happening in their body.

What differentiates the company from other breast cancer care?

Today, it’s really difficult for women under 40 to get screening, yet we know they’re getting breast cancer. That’s for a few reasons. Mammography is not reimbursed and is also not recommended for women under 40, unless you’re very high risk. Younger women have more dense tissue, and that decreases the accuracy of mammograms.

We brought on the co-founder of Equinox [Lavinia Errico], and she’s helping with designing the experience, both in person and digitally. We think that’s going to be really important as well because a lot of women today, even if they qualify for a mammogram, they don’t get it because they’re scared or it’s painful or they don’t want exposure to radiation. We think offering a better experience is more conducive to women actually wanting to get screened.

How will you use AI?

The most expensive part of the scan is the radiologist and their interpretation. If we can help make their jobs easier and help them read more quickly, then we can help to drive down the cost of the scans. There’s really rigorous FDA review, requirements, and clearance that’s involved, so we are not using any AI yet, but that’s on the road map.

Where do you hope the company will be in the next five to 10 years?

I hope that breast cancer screening for younger women is more accessible and that we help to remove the stigma around both screening and just having dense breasts in general. Our larger vision is really to end late-stage breast cancer because that’s how we save women’s lives. I would love to have BeSound available to women across the country, and with the AI that we’re building, that’s actually how we hope to improve accessibility even more. [This includes] driving down the costs—our goal is eventually $150.

We [also] want to expand into ovarian cancer and pelvic ultrasound imaging, all women’s ultrasound-based imaging.