AI Diagnostics Arrive in Puerto Rico, Reshaping Prostate Cancer Care

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – July 08, 2026 – In a move that signals a significant shift in regional healthcare, the San Juan-based laboratory CorePlus has become the first in Puerto Rico to integrate a sophisticated artificial intelligence tool into its prostate cancer diagnostic pathway. The integration of the ArteraAI Prostate Test, a guideline-recommended tool for personalizing treatment, represents more than a technological upgrade; it’s a crucial step toward democratizing precision medicine for a population that has historically faced gaps in access to cutting-edge care.

This collaboration between CorePlus, Puerto Rico’s pioneering digital pathology lab, and Artera, a global leader in AI-driven precision oncology, aims to solve one of the most persistent challenges in prostate cancer management: determining the right course of action. For the more than 3.5 million men in the United States living with a prostate cancer diagnosis, the path forward is often fraught with uncertainty. The disease’s variability means that while some tumors are aggressive, many are not, leading to a difficult balance between the risks of over-treatment and the dangers of under-treatment. By deploying AI to analyze biopsy images, this partnership promises to bring a new level of clarity to clinicians and patients across the island.

A New Diagnostic Frontier for Puerto Rico

CorePlus is no stranger to technological firsts. The laboratory achieved 100% whole-slide imaging for primary diagnosis in 2020 and has since performed over a quarter-million AI-assisted analyses. This latest move, however, places it at the forefront of a major trend in oncology. By adopting the ArteraAI test, the lab can now offer predictive insights that were previously unavailable in the region, delivering results that can guide life-altering treatment decisions within 24 hours.

“We are proud of our close partnership with Artera, expanding from initial research and development efforts into clinical usage and now operational integration,” said Mariano de Socarraz, Founder & CEO of CorePlus. “Through persistence and precision, our teams have delivered AI-enabled insights to our largely underserved patient population, faster and more conveniently than even most leading academic centers.”

This initiative is particularly significant for Puerto Rico, where prostate cancer remains a major health concern. The new tool provides a powerful supplement to the island’s existing diagnostic and treatment infrastructure, which includes advanced radiation therapies and robotic surgery. The key difference lies in personalization. The AI-powered test analyzes digital images of a patient's biopsy slides—without consuming any irreplaceable tissue—and combines that visual data with clinical information to generate a highly specific risk profile. This allows urologists to better identify which patients truly need aggressive intervention and which can safely opt for active surveillance.

Crucially, the collaboration extends beyond simple implementation. Acknowledging that AI models are only as good as the data they are trained on, the two organizations have embarked on joint research to validate the AI biomarker specifically within a Puerto Rican cohort. Dr. Juan C. Santa Rosario, Chief Medical Officer of CorePlus, is set to present these findings at the upcoming PathVisions conference, a testament to the commitment to ensuring the technology is both effective and equitable for the local Hispanic population.

The Science of Certainty: How AI is Redefining Pathology

The ArteraAI Prostate Test stands out in a growing field of diagnostic aids. It is the only test of its kind included in the prestigious NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology that can both predict a patient's likely benefit from therapy and forecast long-term outcomes. This dual capability earned it a Category 2A recommendation, signifying a uniform consensus among NCCN experts on its clinical utility, backed by Level IB evidence from multiple randomized Phase 3 trials.

At its core, the technology uses a multimodal artificial intelligence (MMAI) platform. Instead of relying on a single data stream, it synthesizes information from digitized histopathology images and the patient’s broader clinical data. The algorithm identifies subtle patterns in the tumor’s structure and cellular architecture that are often invisible to the human eye, correlating them with outcomes from thousands of previous cases. This allows it to predict the likelihood of events like distant metastasis or prostate cancer-specific mortality with a high degree of accuracy.

“At Artera, our mission in making precision oncology accessible means proving it works across every community, and Dr. Santa Rosario’s research reinforces this,” said Andre Esteva, CEO and Co-Founder of Artera. “By combining innovative digital pathology with multimodal data analysis, we provide clinicians with the tools they need to deliver truly personalized care.”

This approach directly addresses the ethical imperative of algorithmic fairness. Concerns over AI bias have shadowed the technology’s rollout in medicine, as models trained on narrow demographic data can perpetuate health disparities. Artera has proactively confronted this by validating its models on diverse populations, including a study of nearly 1,000 African American men, which found no evidence of algorithmic bias. The ongoing validation work with CorePlus’s extensive database of Hispanic patients further extends this commitment to building trustworthy and universally effective AI.

From Lab to Life: Empowering Patient Decisions

For the individual patient, the integration of this technology translates into empowerment. A prostate cancer diagnosis can initiate a period of intense anxiety, dominated by complex choices about surgery, radiation, or hormone therapy—all of which carry significant side effects. The ArteraAI test provides a data-driven anchor in this storm of uncertainty. By offering a clearer picture of their personal risk, patients and their doctors can have more confident conversations about the most appropriate path forward.

This might mean helping a man with low-risk disease feel comfortable with active surveillance, avoiding the potential for incontinence or erectile dysfunction associated with aggressive treatment. Conversely, it could identify a patient whose cancer appears low-risk under a microscope but harbors hidden aggressive potential, flagging them for necessary hormone therapy. The rapid delivery of these insights—often within a day—accelerates the entire clinical workflow, reducing the agonizing waiting period and allowing treatment to begin sooner when needed.

Accessibility is another key component of the value proposition. In the United States, the test is covered by Medicare with no out-of-pocket costs for patients, and financial assistance programs are available for others. By bringing this tool into its standard workflow, CorePlus is working to ensure that these advanced diagnostics are not just reserved for elite academic centers but are available to its broad referral network of urologists across Puerto Rico.

The Broader Canvas: AI, Ethics, and the Future of Oncology

The CorePlus-Artera partnership is a microcosm of a much larger transformation. AI is steadily moving from the research bench to the clinical front lines, augmenting the expertise of pathologists and oncologists worldwide. The FDA has recognized this paradigm shift, developing an evolving regulatory framework that encourages innovation while ensuring patient safety through principles like Good Machine Learning Practice.

This strategic integration demonstrates a mature application of AI, one that addresses real-world clinical needs and prioritizes ethical considerations like data diversity and validation. By uniting AI-powered diagnostics with a deep expertise in precision pathology, CorePlus and Artera are not just improving care in Puerto Rico; they are providing a compelling model for how technology can be deployed thoughtfully and effectively. This collaboration is a clear example of how strategic innovation is creating a more precise, personalized, and equitable future for cancer care.