WATERTOWN, Mass. — For nearly an hour, Ernie Lopez sat still inside a narrow MRI tube.
“My biggest fear is if my nose itches,” said Ernie Lopez.
Lopez underwent a full-body MRI scan through Prenuvo, a company that offers a variety of advanced MRI scans.
Prenuvo claims its scans can detect over five hundred conditions, including early-stage cancers. Artificial Intelligence is used to analyze billions of data points, board-certified radiologists interpret the results, and patients receive detailed reports along with a consultation from a nurse practitioner.
The information is accessible through the Prenuvo app.
“We’re offering an extra layer of protection beyond standard medical care,” said Dr. Daniel Durand, Prenuvo’s Chief Medical Officer. “It’s like a digital physical exam interpreted by a radiologist. It doesn’t replace other tests — but it’s powerful.”
The scan comes with a price tag. Depending on the scan, Prenuvo charges between $999 and $4,499, and the scans are not covered by insurance.
Prenuvo has gained popularity over the years through endorsements by celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Maria Menounos. But medical experts like Dr. Jennifer Haas, an Internist with Mass General Brigham, warn about false positives that could lead to invasive and unnecessary follow-up tests.
“Let’s say the scan says, we think that you have cancer, but then you go on and get a biopsy on whatever that abnormality was, and it’s not really cancer,” said Dr. Jennifer Haas. “So you’ve then gone through the anxiety of having this evaluation to be told you don’t have cancer. That’s not a guarantee that six months from now you’re not going to have cancer.”
Dr. Haas says she wants more evidence before recommending it to her patients. For now, Dr. Haas encourages people with any type of symptoms to speak with their doctor first.
Prenuvo is conducting a decade-long study in Watertown, Massachusetts, to assess the accuracy of its whole-body MRI screening. The study aims to enroll 100,000 participants and is a fully participant-funded study, with a scan fee of $2,200. Financial assistance is available for qualifying participants.
For participants like Ernie Lopez, he hears the concerns and sees the price tag, but it’s not holding him back.
“You have to take it with a grain of salt because I intend to go to my doctor after if there are any findings and hopefully conducting further checks,” said Ernie Lopez.
“If I can just get a marker so that in the future, if I need scans five, ten, fifteen years from now, we have a baseline.”
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