Prenuvo, the celebrity-endorsed company offering $2,500 full-body MRI scans designed to detect cancer and other diseases early, is planning to open one of its clinics in Seattle in 2024.
Silicon Valley-based Prenuvo currently has eight locations in the U.S. and one in Vancouver, B.C. It has plans to open 11 more in the coming months, including in the third or fourth quarter of next year in Seattle.
The company has been generating buzz thanks to some of its high-profile clientele, including Kim Kardashian, who told her 3.6 million Instagram followers about the “life-saving machine” in an August post.
The company’s backers include model Cindy Crawford; 23andMe co-founder Anne Wojcicki; Nest Labs founder Tony Fadell; and Felicis Ventures, investors in Shopify, Fitbit, Ring and more.
Founded in 2018 by CEO Andrew Lacy and founding radiologist Dr. Raj Attariwala, Prenuvo says its mission is to “shift healthcare from reactive to proactive” and “empower people to determine their own health roadmap.”
Prenuvo says it can conduct a whole-body MRI — magnetic resonance imaging — scan in under one hour and identify conditions not easily found in other proactive scans, without contrast or radiation. These conditions include:
- solid tumors as small as 1.5cm in the organs of the chest, abdomen, and pelvis.
- cancer from benign conditions such as cysts, hematoma, hemangiomas, and abscesses.
- disc herniation, spinal cord abnormalities, and spinal degeneration
- musculoskeletal conditions, fatty liver disease, hemochromatosis, pre-kidney stones, and multiple sclerosis.
- prostate, cervical, uterine, and ovarian cancers in the pelvis.
- brain aneurysms, small vessel ischemia (stroke risk factor), previous strokes, and sinus issues.
The company explains what sets its scans apart from other MRIs and CT scans here.
Prenuvo’s machine is called an open bore MRI scanner, which permits the head to be outside of the magnet for portions of the scans. After a scan, images are reviewed by one of the company’s 30 licensed radiologists. Patient results are typically ready in about 10-to-15 days.
Every report includes both patient-friendly explanations and insights into the risk level and actions recommended, as well as a physician-focused, shareable PDF report, according to Prenuvo.
The pricey procedure is not covered by insurance, which makes for a steep out-of-pocket expense. The New York Times wrote in September that while Prenuvo does not pay anyone to promote its products, it has sought a high-profile and “glamorous” crowd to use its machine — and then post about it on social media.
TV personality Maria Menounos told People magazine in May that a Prenuvo scan alerted her to a mass that turned out to be Stage 2 pancreatic cancer.
But experts who spoke to The New York Times cautioned that healthy people undergoing such scans can do more harm than good, as nonspecific findings could require extensive, expensive follow-up.
Regardless, Prenuvo’s waitlists are long, CNBC reported last month. Lacy said the business has spiked as awareness in the past 12 months has grown “incredibly.”
The locations section on Prenuvo’s website offers the ability the join a waitlist for the future Seattle location.
