The renowned American newspaper The New York Times recently featured an in - depth, full - page report on DAMO PANDA. This is an AI model specifically designed for the early screening of pancreatic cancer, and it was developed by Alibaba's DAMO Academy.

Since November 2014, DAMO PANDA has been hard at work at a hospital in Ningbo. It has meticulously analyzed over 180,000 CT scans. Through this extensive analysis, it has successfully played a crucial role in helping doctors identify 24 cases of pancreatic cancer. Among these, 14 were in the early stages, which is a significant achievement as early detection greatly improves the chances of successful treatment.

Leveraging the “plain CT scan + AI” technology, DAMO PANDA boasts remarkable performance metrics. It achieves a sensitivity rate of 92.9%, which means it is highly adept at correctly identifying patients who actually have pancreatic cancer. At the same time, it has a specificity rate of 99.9%, indicating that it rarely gives false - positive results, thus avoiding unnecessary anxiety and further tests for healthy individuals. This combination of high sensitivity and specificity enables it to precisely pinpoint even the most subtle lesions in the pancreas.

In April 2025, the model received a significant accolade. It was granted the Breakthrough Device Designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This makes it the first AI medical model from China to receive such a prestigious honor, highlighting its potential and innovation in the medical field.

Currently, Alibaba's DAMO Academy is actively collaborating with multiple medical institutions. They are conducting research and pilot programs with the aim of further advancing and popularizing this groundbreaking technology, so that more patients can benefit from early pancreatic cancer detection.