While nearly 350,000 patients are treated in oncology each year, AI remains surrounded by doubts, particularly among younger people. Between hopes of personalized prevention, promises of early detection and fears linked to ethics or inequalities, technology divides as much as it intrigues.
When AI remains a mystery to the general public
Nearly seven in ten French people (67%) do not know if AI is used today in hospitals, even though it is already present in the diagnosis or treatment of cancers in nearly 70% of establishments. This lack of knowledge concerns concrete and advanced applications: 60% of French people do not know that AI can
detect certain cancers up to five years before symptoms appearand 56% are unaware that it could simulate patients’ response to treatments using digital twins.
This distance from technology fuels reluctance. Nearly four in ten French people say they are still hesitant about the use of AI in oncology. The generational gap is marked: “60% of those under 35 describe AI as a “gadget” in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, while 78% of seniors (65 and over) are convinced of its therapeutic potential.notes the OpinionWay study for the ARC Foundation, carried out on December 10 and 11, 2025 with 1,012 people representative of the French population.
However, optimism persists: 77% of French people think that AI will become essential in monitoring and personalizing care, and 66% believe that it can accelerate the discovery of new therapeutic avenues thanks to massive data analysis.
Concrete applications that are already transforming research
The ARC Foundation, recognized as being of public utility, is at the forefront of the integration of AI in oncology. Projects supported by the association illustrate its potential. In Montpellier, the team of Stéphanie Nougaret, radiologist at the Cancer Institute, is developing artificial intelligence tools applied to medical imaging to detect and monitor ovarian and pancreatic cancers. Radiomics transforms medical images into usable data to identify tumor markers and better predict response to treatments.
Furthermore, AI could revolutionize clinical trials. The creation of “virtual patients” would make it possible to complete patient cohorts, the recruitment of which can be long or ethically delicate. A program at the Léon Bérard Center in Lyon is already testing the feasibility of these methods, paving the way for faster and more precise trials.
These innovations reflect a tangible evolution: AI is no longer an abstract concept but a tool serving patients, capable of anticipating cancers and optimizing care.
Pedagogy and trust: the keys to citizen support
For these technologies to be fully accepted, it is essential to reduce the gap between scientific promises and public perception. The OpinionWay study highlights a risk of social divide: among households receiving less than €2,000 per month, 63% say they are worried about AI and 52% fear that it will only benefit the most advantaged, compared to 26% in wealthy households.
If 81% of French people are ready to share their medical data to advance research, this support remains conditional on security, anonymization and transparency of use.
For Professor Éric Solary, vice-president of the ARC Foundation, the issue is clear: “The use of AI in the hospital world is still largely perceived as abstract. However, AI is gradually being integrated into clinical practice, particularly in the field of oncology. It should in particular enable more personalized prevention and screening of cancers. Its acceptance requires compliance with rules of transparency and ethics.”.
The message is both simple and crucial: AI can transform the patient journey and research, but only clear pedagogy and open dialogue with citizens will allow us to move from concern to trust, and unlock its full potential in the fight against cancer.
Discover several of our articles which demonstrate the concrete advances of AI in the fight against cancer:
-
Breast cancer: artificial intelligence made it possible to avoid missed tumors between two mammograms
-
How AI can help the battle against cancer
-
Lung cancer: artificial intelligence, twice as effective as humans in detecting it
-
Artificial intelligence, a hope in the fight against cancer
-
AI is revolutionizing melanoma detection: a 94.5% accurate model could transform screening
-
Cervical cancer: this AI can reduce a key step in brachytherapy to just a few minutes
-
Breast cancer: thousands of women wrongly deprived of targeted treatment, AI finally corrects the diagnosis
-
In France, artificial intelligence identifies the origin of cancers, previously untraceable
-
Fight against cancer: AI and new treatments, the latest advances from the ESMO congress
Artificial intelligence is no longer a futuristic concept reserved for laboratories or technophile speeches. It is already at work in hospitals, at patients’ bedsides, capable of anticipating cancers, refining treatments and accelerating research. But without education, transparency and trust, its potential risks remaining underexploited. The challenge is no longer technological, it is now citizen.