OnCo

Create your OnCo account

One account keeps your watchlist, saved views and cancer choice in sync across your devices, and lets OnCo alert you when a trial or treatment you follow changes. No password: we email you a sign-in link.

Account creation is being switched on. Until then, press Watch on any page and your list stays in this browser.

Cancers & treatments

Technology dependency map

94 technologies joined by 119 recorded dependencies in 6 layers. 31 foundations need nothing else in the corpus; 41 end products are needed by nothing further. Pick a root to see what one technology cannot exist without, and what stops if it fails.

94 technologies, 119 dependencies, 6 layers. Scroll to pan; hover a tile to trace what it needs and what needs it; click to open its page.

Layer 0 · foundationsLayer 1Layer 2Layer 3Layer 4Layer 5 · end productsADC bioconjugation manufacturing (CDMOs) Depends on 0 · needed by 1 · 7 vendors ADC bioconjugation manufacturing joins a payload so toxic it needs the top containment class (OEB 5) to an antibody, then checks drug-to-antibody ratio and free payload. Capacity sits with a handful of contractors such as Lonza, WuXi XDC and Samsung Biologics, so long queues and China-based exposure shape who can develop ADCs.ADC bioconjugation manufa…Whole-slide scanners and image management Depends on 0 · needed by 1 · 8 vendors The scanners that turn glass slides into gigapixel images, and the software that stores and serves them, without which pathology AI cannot run.Whole-slide scanners and…Nuclear medicine and total-body PET hardware Depends on 0 · needed by 2 · 5 vendors Nuclear medicine hardware means the scanners themselves: PET/CT, SPECT/CT, and new total-body PET that images the whole body at once.Nuclear medicine and tota…Radionuclide generators and cold kits Depends on 0 · needed by 2 · 6 vendors Bench-top devices that 'milk' a short-lived isotope from a long-lived parent, plus vials of ready-to-label ligand. How most hospitals make PSMA and somatostatin PET tracers without a cyclotron.Radionuclide generators a…AI compute and model platforms for oncology Depends on 0 · needed by 5 · 3 vendors AI compute platforms are the GPUs, model libraries, and cloud services that pathology, radiology, and drug-design AI run on.AI compute and model plat…Chokepoint: removing this step cuts off part of the mapBrachytherapy Depends on 0 · needed by 1 · 6 vendors Brachytherapy places a radioactive source directly inside or next to the tumour.BrachytherapyCell-therapy orchestration and chain-of-identity software Depends on 0 · needed by 1 Scheduling and tracking software that makes sure each patient's cells come back to that patient, on time.Cell-therapy orchestratio…Mammography & tomosynthesis Depends on 0 · needed by 1 · 11 vendors Low-dose breast X-ray used for screening. Newer 3D versions find more cancers with fewer false alarms.Mammography & tomosynthes…CT (computed tomography) Depends on 0 · needed by 5 · 12 vendors A CT scan is a fast 3D X-ray that shows the size and shape of tumours and whether they have spread.CT (computed tomography)Chokepoint: removing this step cuts off part of the mapAntibody manufacturing (CHO bioprocessing) Depends on 0 · needed by 2 · 6 vendors Antibody manufacturing means growing antibody drugs like pembrolizumab or trastuzumab in vats of engineered hamster cells, then purifying them. It is the industrial base for most modern cancer drugs.Antibody manufacturing (C…Payload-linker synthesis (high-potency API) Depends on 0 · needed by 1 · 4 vendors Payload-linker synthesis makes the cytotoxic small molecules inside ADCs (exatecan, MMAE, DM1, PBD dimers), whose occupational exposure limits sit in the nanogram range, in facilities built so a speck of dust cannot harm a worker. A handful of licensed sites such as Lonza and WuXi STA supply them, and their lead times gate hundreds of ADCs in development.Payload-linker synthesis…Apheresis and starting-material collection Depends on 0 · needed by 4 · 2 vendors Apheresis is collecting a patient's white blood cells through a machine over several hours. Every autologous CAR-T begins here, and the quality of these cells shapes the final product.Apheresis and starting-ma…Plasmid DNA and mRNA raw-material manufacturing Depends on 0 · needed by 2 · 2 vendors Plasmid DNA and mRNA raw materials are the DNA templates and enzymes behind viral vectors and mRNA vaccines. They are invisible to patients but decisive for supply.Plasmid DNA and mRNA raw-…Chokepoint: removing this step cuts off part of the mapAllogeneic donor and iPSC master cell banks Depends on 0 · needed by 1 · 1 vendor Making cell therapies from a healthy donor or stem-cell line in advance, so patients get an off-the-shelf product instead of waiting weeks.Allogeneic donor and iPSC…Single vendor1Cryopreservation and cell-therapy cold chain Depends on 0 · needed by 6 · 2 vendors Freezing cells at minus 150 degrees and shipping them in liquid-nitrogen 'dry shippers' with tracking, so a living drug arrives alive and matched to the right patient.Cryopreservation and cell…Medical cyclotrons, hot cells, and synthesis modules Depends on 0 · needed by 4 · 6 vendors The particle accelerators and shielded robotic chemistry boxes that make PET tracers in hospital basements and commercial pharmacies.Medical cyclotrons, hot c…Cell-therapy release and potency testing Depends on 0 · needed by 7 · 2 vendors The quality checks a CAR-T batch must pass before it can be given: sterile, correct identity, enough live CAR-positive cells, and no replicating virus.Cell-therapy release and…In vivo dosimetry and patient-specific quality assurance Depends on 0 · needed by 2 · 2 vendors Measuring the dose the patient actually receives, with detectors on the skin or the imaging panel behind them, to catch errors before they cause harm.In vivo dosimetry and pat…Cancer variant knowledgebases and molecular tumour boards Depends on 0 · needed by 1 Curated databases that say what each mutation means for treatment, and the expert meetings that use them to decide on therapy.Cancer variant knowledgeb…Cytokines & engineered cytokines Depends on 0 · needed by 1 · 9 vendors Cytokine therapy gives immune-signalling proteins as drugs. High-dose interleukin-2 was the first immunotherapy to cure some melanomas, at great toxicity.Cytokines & engineered cy…Clinical NGS bioinformatics and variant interpretation Depends on 0 · needed by 4 · 4 vendors Software that turns raw sequencer output into a report of which mutations matter and which drugs they point to.Clinical NGS bioinformati…Chokepoint: removing this step cuts off part of the mapClosed automated cell-therapy manufacturing Depends on 0 · needed by 1 · 6 vendors Sealed, robot-run machines that turn a patient's blood cells into a CAR-T product with far fewer hands, clean rooms, and mistakes.Closed automated cell-the…MRI Depends on 0 · needed by 3 · 10 vendors MRI uses a strong magnet and radio waves, with no ionising radiation, to picture soft tissue in finer contrast than CT, so it is the standard scan for brain tumours, prostate, rectal cancer staging, liver lesions and breast screening in high-risk women. It is slow, expensive and blurred by movement.MRIChokepoint: removing this step cuts off part of the mapDNA methylation profiling Depends on 0 · needed by 1 · 9 vendors Reading chemical tags on DNA that reveal a cell's identity, used to classify brain tumours and to detect cancer in blood.DNA methylation profilingRNA sequencing & expression profiling Depends on 0 · needed by 2 · 12 vendors Measuring which genes a tumour is actively using, which reveals its subtype and finds gene fusions.RNA sequencing & expressi…Chokepoint: removing this step cuts off part of the mapSpatial biology instruments Depends on 0 · needed by 2 · 4 vendors Spatial biology instruments are machines that map which genes and proteins are active in each part of a tumour slice.Spatial biology instrumen…Chokepoint: removing this step cuts off part of the mapPre-analytics: blood-collection tubes and tissue fixation Depends on 0 · needed by 1 · 3 vendors The tubes and fixatives that keep a sample stable between the patient and the lab. Unglamorous, but they decide whether a liquid biopsy or PD-L1 stain is trustworthy.Pre-analytics: blood-coll…PROTACs & molecular glues (targeted protein degradation) Depends on 0 · needed by 1 · 23 vendors Instead of blocking a protein, these drugs tag it for the cell's own garbage disposal, removing it entirely.PROTACs & molecular glues…Site-specific conjugation & linker chemistry Depends on 0 · needed by 1 · 6 vendors Site-specific conjugation and linker chemistry decide exactly where and how many payloads attach to the antibody, which determines how safe and effective an ADC is.Site-specific conjugation…Sterile fill-finish and lyophilisation Depends on 0 · needed by 2 · 5 vendors Sterile fill-finish is putting the finished drug into vials under sterile conditions. It is a frequent cause of shortages when capacity is tight.Sterile fill-finish and l…Chokepoint: removing this step cuts off part of the mapTherapeutic isotope supply chain (Mo-99, Lu-177, Ac-225) Depends on 0 · needed by 4 · 13 vendors Where the radioactive atoms for imaging and therapy actually come from: ageing reactors, new accelerators, and a scramble for actinium.Therapeutic isotope suppl…Digital pathology & AI Depends on 2 · needed by 2 · 16 vendors Scanning microscope slides and letting software measure things a pathologist cannot see, including predictions of who will benefit from a treatment.Digital pathology & AIChokepoint: removing this step cuts off part of the mapSPECT & bone scan Depends on 2 · needed by 1 · 5 vendors SPECT and the bone scan are an older type of nuclear scan, still used for bone metastases and to check where a radioactive drug went after treatment.SPECT & bone scanAI auto-contouring and adaptive planning Depends on 1 · needed by 0 · 7 vendors Software that draws organs and tumours on scans automatically, saving hours per patient and making daily plan adaptation practical.AI auto-contouring and ad…AI in radiology Depends on 1 · needed by 0 · 12 vendors Software that reads scans alongside radiologists, catching cancers earlier and predicting who is at risk.AI in radiologyRadiotherapy treatment planning and QA software Depends on 1 · needed by 3 · 6 vendors The software that calculates exactly how radiation beams should be shaped and checks the machine delivered it.Radiotherapy treatment pl…High-dose-rate brachytherapy Depends on 1 · needed by 0 A tiny, intensely radioactive source is stepped through applicators placed in or beside the tumour for a few minutes at a time, then withdrawn, so the dose is delivered from inside without leaving anything behind.High-dose-rate brachyther…AI-assisted mammography screening Depends on 2 · needed by 0 Software that reads screening mammograms alongside or before radiologists, catching more cancers and cutting the reading workload in large trials.AI-assisted mammography s…Bispecific antibodies Depends on 1 · needed by 2 · 14 vendors A bispecific antibody is one antibody with two different grabbing arms, so it can block two targets at once or pull an immune cell onto a cancer cell.Bispecific antibodiesChokepoint: removing this step cuts off part of the mapLow-dose CT lung screening Depends on 1 · needed by 0 · 1 vendor A yearly low-radiation CT scan for current and former heavy smokers that finds lung cancer early enough to cure it.Low-dose CT lung screeningSingle vendor1Monoclonal antibodies Depends on 1 · needed by 4 · 13 vendors Lab-made immune proteins that lock onto one target, either blocking it or flagging the cell for destruction.Monoclonal antibodiesChokepoint: removing this step cuts off part of the mapPET tracer manufacturing and distribution Depends on 1 · needed by 1 · 7 vendors Making PSMA, FDG, and new tracers under drug-manufacturing rules and delivering them daily.PET tracer manufacturing…Autologous stem cell transplant (high-dose therapy) Depends on 2 · needed by 0 · 1 vendor Autologous stem cell transplant collects the patient's own blood-forming stem cells, gives melphalan or another chemotherapy at a dose that would otherwise destroy the marrow, then returns the cells to rebuild it. It is standard consolidation in myeloma and for relapsed lymphoma, though CAR-T has displaced it in early-relapsing large B-cell lymphoma.Autologous stem cell tran…Single vendor1Viral vector manufacturing (lentiviral, retroviral, AAV) Depends on 1 · needed by 4 · 7 vendors Producing the engineered viruses that carry a CAR gene into T cells. Viral vector manufacturing is a long-standing bottleneck for cell and gene therapy.Viral vector manufacturin…Chokepoint: removing this step cuts off part of the mapDendritic cell vaccines Depends on 2 · needed by 0 · 3 vendors Vaccines made from a patient's own antigen-presenting cells loaded with tumour proteins; sipuleucel-T for prostate cancer was the first approved, and newer versions are tested in brain and other cancers.Dendritic cell vaccinesAllogeneic (off-the-shelf) cell therapy Depends on 3 · needed by 0 · 15 vendors Cell therapies made from healthy donors in advance, so patients do not have to wait for their own cells to be engineered.Allogeneic (off-the-shelf…NK cell therapy and CAR-NK Depends on 2 · needed by 0 Infusions of natural killer cells from donors or cord blood, sometimes fitted with a CAR, offering an off-the-shelf alternative to CAR-T with less cytokine release.NK cell therapy and CAR-NKComprehensive genomic profiling Depends on 2 · needed by 1 · 28 vendors Sequencing hundreds of cancer genes at once from a biopsy to find the mutations a drug can target.Comprehensive genomic pro…Chokepoint: removing this step cuts off part of the mapTIL therapy Depends on 3 · needed by 0 · 3 vendors Immune cells that have already found their way into the tumour are harvested, grown to billions, and returned.TIL therapyWhole-exome & whole-genome sequencing Depends on 1 · needed by 1 · 8 vendors Reading all the genes (exome) or the entire DNA (genome) of a tumour, rather than a chosen panel.Whole-exome & whole-genom…Chokepoint: removing this step cuts off part of the mapRadiopharmacy and cyclotron networks Depends on 1 · needed by 3 · 7 vendors The factories and courier routes that make and deliver short-lived radioactive tracers to hospitals within hours.Radiopharmacy and cyclotr…Point-of-care and decentralised cell manufacturing Depends on 1 · needed by 0 · 5 vendors Making CAR-T cells at or near the hospital instead of shipping cells to a central factory and back.Point-of-care and decentr…Multiparametric prostate MRI (PI-RADS) Depends on 1 · needed by 0 Multiparametric prostate MRI combines three scan sequences, scored 1 to 5 under PI-RADS, and is done before a first biopsy in men with a raised PSA. Needles go to suspicious areas and men with a negative scan can often avoid biopsy altogether, but about one in ten clinically significant cancers is missed.Multiparametric prostate…Spatial transcriptomics Depends on 2 · needed by 0 · 2 vendors Methods that read which genes are switched on in each spot or cell of a tumour slice while keeping the tissue's geography, so scientists can see how cancer, immune and stromal cells sit next to one another.Spatial transcriptomicsSingle-cell & spatial profiling Depends on 1 · needed by 0 · 9 vendors Reading the genes of each individual cell, and mapping where each cell sits in the tumour.Single-cell & spatial pro…AI scoring of biomarkers and grade on pathology slides Depends on 1 · needed by 0 · 1 vendor Software that reads digitised biopsy slides to detect cancer, grade it, and score biomarkers such as HER2, PD-L1 and Ki-67 more consistently than the eye alone.AI scoring of biomarkers…Single vendor1Radioligand dosimetry Depends on 1 · needed by 2 Measuring, from scans taken after each dose, how much radiation a radioligand actually delivers to the tumour and to kidneys and marrow, so treatment can be personalised.Radioligand dosimetryPathology & radiology foundation models Depends on 2 · needed by 0 · 10 vendors Pathology and radiology foundation models are AI networks pretrained without labels on over a million slides or scans (Virchow used 1.5 million), then adapted with small task heads to predict mutations, prognosis or treatment response from routine images. They power the FDA-cleared ArteraAI tools, but validation across hospitals and how regulators treat general-purpose models remain unsettled.Pathology & radiology fou…Proton therapy Depends on 3 · needed by 1 · 9 vendors Radiation using protons, which stop inside the tumour instead of passing through, so tissue behind it gets no dose.Proton therapyChokepoint: removing this step cuts off part of the mapIMRT / IGRT (modern external beam) Depends on 3 · needed by 4 · 7 vendors IMRT and IGRT shape the radiation beam to the tumour's outline from multiple angles and check the patient's position with a scan before every session, so surrounding organs receive less dose. Fewer, larger doses are now standard in breast and prostate cancer, but a low-dose bath still spreads across normal tissue.IMRT / IGRT (modern exter…Chokepoint: removing this step cuts off part of the mapT-cell engagers (bispecific) Depends on 1 · needed by 0 · 12 vendors An off-the-shelf drug that physically links a killer T cell to a cancer cell, forcing the attack.T-cell engagers (bispecif…Immune checkpoint inhibitors Depends on 1 · needed by 0 · 7 vendors Immune checkpoint inhibitors are antibodies against CTLA-4, PD-1 or PD-L1 that release the brakes on T cells so they attack the cancer. They are approved in more than 20 tumour types and produce lasting, sometimes curative responses that chemotherapy rarely does, but most patients do not respond and autoimmune side effects are the cost.Immune checkpoint inhibit…Radio-antibody & radio-ADC Depends on 2 · needed by 0 · 3 vendors Attaching a radioactive atom to an antibody, so an ADC's targeting is used to deliver radiation instead of chemotherapy.Radio-antibody & radio-ADCPET (positron emission tomography) Depends on 2 · needed by 2 · 4 vendors A scan that shows where a radioactive tracer accumulates, so it images what tumours are doing rather than what they look like.PET (positron emission to…Antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) Depends on 5 · needed by 2 · 31 vendors An antibody-drug conjugate is an antibody that homes to a protein on the tumour cell, is swallowed, and releases a chemotherapy payload inside it. That widens chemotherapy's safe dose window about a hundredfold, which is why payloads too toxic to give alone can be used, though lung inflammation, neutropenia and eye toxicity from the payload still occur.Antibody-drug conjugate (…Chokepoint: removing this step cuts off part of the mapCAR-NK & CAR-macrophage Depends on 2 · needed by 0 · 4 vendors Putting the cancer-seeking receptor on natural killer cells or macrophages instead of T cells, which could be safer and off-the-shelf.CAR-NK & CAR-macrophageCAR-T cell therapy Depends on 5 · needed by 1 · 29 vendors A patient's T cells are removed, given a synthetic receptor that recognises the cancer, multiplied, and put back as a living drug.CAR-T cell therapyChokepoint: removing this step cuts off part of the mapOncolytic viruses Depends on 1 · needed by 0 · 9 vendors Viruses engineered to infect and burst cancer cells while leaving normal cells alone, and to alert the immune system in the process.Oncolytic virusesTCR-T cell therapy Depends on 4 · needed by 0 · 9 vendors T cells engineered with a receptor that sees fragments of proteins inside the cancer cell, reaching targets CAR-T cannot.TCR-T cell therapyLiquid biopsy (ctDNA) Depends on 3 · needed by 3 · 36 vendors A blood test that reads fragments of DNA shed by the tumour, so you can genotype or monitor cancer without a needle in the tumour.Liquid biopsy (ctDNA)Chokepoint: removing this step cuts off part of the mapPersonalised neoantigen (mRNA) vaccines Depends on 4 · needed by 0 · 19 vendors A vaccine made for one patient, encoding the unique mutations in their own tumour, to train the immune system to hunt it.Personalised neoantigen (…Targeted alpha therapy Depends on 3 · needed by 1 · 16 vendors Like radioligand therapy but with alpha particles: far more destructive over a much shorter range, so single cells can be killed with less collateral damage.Targeted alpha therapyPencil-beam scanning and intensity-modulated proton therapy Depends on 1 · needed by 1 Modern proton machines paint the tumour spot by spot with a magnetically steered pencil beam, so the dose can be shaped in three dimensions and the proton's stop-point is put to full use.Pencil-beam scanning and…Chokepoint: removing this step cuts off part of the mapAdaptive radiotherapy (online replanning) Depends on 2 · needed by 0 · 1 vendor Re-shaping the treatment plan to the anatomy of the day, using the images taken on the treatment couch, so the dose follows a shrinking tumour or a moving bladder.Adaptive radiotherapy (on…Single vendor1MR-guided adaptive radiotherapy Depends on 2 · needed by 0 · 4 vendors An MR-linac is a radiation machine with an MRI scanner built in, so images taken during setup let the plan be re-optimised in minutes to that day's anatomy. It allows tighter margins and higher doses in pancreatic and prostate cancer, but treatment is slow and costly, and whether daily adaptation improves cure rates rather than only toxicity is unproven.MR-guided adaptive radiot…PET/CT Depends on 2 · needed by 5 · 6 vendors PET and CT in one machine, so hot spots on the PET are pinned to exact locations on the CT.PET/CTChokepoint: removing this step cuts off part of the mapSBRT / SABR (stereotactic radiotherapy) Depends on 1 · needed by 0 · 6 vendors Stereotactic body radiotherapy converges multiple beams with sub-millimetre accuracy to deliver tumour-destroying doses in one to five outpatient sessions, doing the job of surgery for inoperable early lung cancer and for metastases in liver, spine and brain. Tumour size and location limit its use, and late toxicity is a concern near the central airways.SBRT / SABR (stereotactic…Volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) Depends on 1 · needed by 0 The linac sweeps around the patient in one or two arcs while the beam shape, dose rate and speed all change, delivering an IMRT-quality plan in a couple of minutes.Volumetric modulated arc…Bispecific ADC Depends on 2 · needed by 0 · 8 vendors A bispecific ADC is an ADC whose antibody grabs two different proteins on the cancer cell, so it sticks better to tumour and less to healthy tissue.Bispecific ADCDegrader-antibody conjugate (DAC) Depends on 2 · needed by 0 · 4 vendors An ADC that delivers a protein-destroying molecule instead of chemotherapy, hitting targets inside the cell that were previously unreachable.Degrader-antibody conjuga…Armoured, logic-gated & next-gen CARs Depends on 1 · needed by 0 · 3 vendors Upgraded CAR-T cells that also secrete immune boosters, resist exhaustion, or only fire when two signals are present.Armoured, logic-gated & n…PET/MRI Depends on 2 · needed by 0 · 3 vendors PET combined with MRI instead of CT, giving biology plus the best soft-tissue detail, at lower radiation dose.PET/MRICell-free DNA methylation tests Depends on 2 · needed by 0 Blood tests that read chemical marks on fragments of DNA shed by tumours; the marks tell cancer DNA from normal DNA and hint at where the cancer is.Cell-free DNA methylation…Multi-cancer early detection (MCED) Depends on 1 · needed by 0 · 14 vendors A single blood test intended to screen for dozens of cancers at once, including ones with no screening today.Multi-cancer early detect…MRD / molecular residual disease testing Depends on 2 · needed by 0 · 16 vendors An ultra-sensitive blood test after surgery that detects leftover cancer months before a scan would.MRD / molecular residual…Astatine-211 alpha therapy Depends on 2 · needed by 0 A rare alpha-emitting halogen that can be attached to antibodies and small molecules like iodine, tested in leukaemia conditioning and brain and ovarian cancer.Astatine-211 alpha therapyRadioligand therapy (beta emitters) Depends on 5 · needed by 2 · 16 vendors A drug that finds tumour cells and carries a radioactive atom that irradiates them from inside the body.Radioligand therapy (beta…Proton arc therapy Depends on 1 · needed by 0 · 3 vendors Rotating the proton beam continuously around the patient instead of firing from a few fixed angles, to spread the entrance dose and sharpen the target dose.Proton arc therapySomatostatin receptor PET (68Ga/64Cu-DOTATATE) Depends on 2 · needed by 1 · 1 vendor A PET scan using a radioactive hormone mimic that lights up neuroendocrine tumours and shows whether the matching radioactive treatment will work.Somatostatin receptor PET…Single vendor1FDG PET Depends on 1 · needed by 0 FDG PET is the standard PET scan. A radioactive sugar shows which tissues are burning glucose fast, which most cancers do.FDG PETImmuno-PET Depends on 2 · needed by 0 PET scans built from radiolabelled antibodies or their fragments, to see any protein an antibody can reach, including immune cells inside tumours.Immuno-PETPSMA PET Depends on 2 · needed by 0 · 4 vendors A prostate-cancer-specific PET scan that finds spread far earlier than CT or bone scan, and tells you whether a matched radioactive drug will work.PSMA PETLutetium-177 radioligand therapy Depends on 2 · needed by 0 Cancer-seeking molecules carrying the radioactive metal lutetium-177, which delivers short-range radiation to tumours it binds; approved for neuroendocrine tumours and prostate cancer.Lutetium-177 radioligand…Peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT) Depends on 2 · needed by 0 · 5 vendors A radioactive version of the hormone mimic used for the scan; it homes to neuroendocrine tumour cells and irradiates them from inside.Peptide receptor radionuc…

Chokepoints21

A chokepoint is a step whose removal splits the map: technologies downstream lose their only route to the foundations. These are where a recall, a plant fire or an export control does the most damage.

Antibody-drug conjugate (ADC)2 direct dependents · 31 vendorsAI compute and model platforms for oncology5 direct dependents · 3 vendorsBispecific antibodies2 direct dependents · 14 vendorsCAR-T cell therapy1 direct dependents · 29 vendorsComprehensive genomic profiling1 direct dependents · 28 vendorsCT (computed tomography)5 direct dependents · 12 vendorsDigital pathology & AI2 direct dependents · 16 vendorsIMRT / IGRT (modern external beam)4 direct dependents · 7 vendorsPencil-beam scanning and intensity-modulated proton therapy1 direct dependents · 0 vendorsLiquid biopsy (ctDNA)3 direct dependents · 36 vendorsMonoclonal antibodies4 direct dependents · 13 vendorsMRI3 direct dependents · 10 vendorsClinical NGS bioinformatics and variant interpretation4 direct dependents · 4 vendorsPET/CT5 direct dependents · 6 vendorsPlasmid DNA and mRNA raw-material manufacturing2 direct dependents · 2 vendorsProton therapy1 direct dependents · 9 vendorsRNA sequencing & expression profiling2 direct dependents · 12 vendorsSpatial biology instruments2 direct dependents · 4 vendorsSterile fill-finish and lyophilisation2 direct dependents · 5 vendorsViral vector manufacturing (lentiviral, retroviral, AAV)4 direct dependents · 7 vendorsWhole-exome & whole-genome sequencing1 direct dependents · 8 vendors

Single-vendor steps6

Steps with exactly one vendor company in the corpus. Some are genuinely sole-source; others just need more companies recorded, so treat this as a list to check rather than a verdict.

Adaptive radiotherapy (online replanning)Only vendor: ViewRay (MRIdian)AI scoring of biomarkers and grade on pathology slidesOnly vendor: Vicinity BioAllogeneic donor and iPSC master cell banksOnly vendor: Caribou BiosciencesAutologous stem cell transplant (high-dose therapy)Only vendor: Angiocrine BioscienceLow-dose CT lung screeningOnly vendor: OptellumSomatostatin receptor PET (68Ga/64Cu-DOTATATE)Only vendor: Advanced Accelerator Applications (Novartis)

Longest chain6

The deepest dependency chain in the corpus, foundations first. Every step must hold for the last technology to be delivered.

  1. Medical cyclotrons, hot cells, and synthesis modules
  2. PET tracer manufacturing and distribution
  3. PET (positron emission tomography)
  4. PET/CT
  5. Radioligand therapy (beta emitters)
  6. Lutetium-177 radioligand therapy

Most relied upon8

Technologies with the most direct dependents. Improving one of these lifts everything to its right on the map.

Cell-therapy release and potency testing7 direct dependentsCryopreservation and cell-therapy cold chain6 direct dependentsAI compute and model platforms for oncology5 direct dependentsCT (computed tomography)5 direct dependentsPET/CT5 direct dependentsApheresis and starting-material collection4 direct dependentsIMRT / IGRT (modern external beam)4 direct dependentsMedical cyclotrons, hot cells, and synthesis modules4 direct dependents

How the map is built

Layers and ordering

Each technology record can name the technologies it cannot be delivered without (dependsOn in src/data). A node sits one layer to the right of its deepest dependency (longest-path layering), and within a layer nodes are ordered by a few barycentre sweeps so arrows cross as little as possible.

Only true, uncontroversial requirements are recorded: manufacturing steps, instruments, software and upstream methods. “Often used with” is not a dependency; that lives in pairings and related links.

Hints and gaps

Chokepoints are articulation points of the map that something depends on; the longest chain is the deepest path; single-vendor steps count the companies linked to each technology in the corpus. Each is a prompt to look closer, not a judgement.

Missing a dependency? Add the id to the technology's dependsOn array, run npm run validate, and it appears here and on both technology pages. Every technology page also shows its own “Depends on” and “Needed by” strips. The wider graph explorer shows every other kind of link.