What Alzheimer's disease can learn from oncology's early‐detection revolution: Toward scalable, cost‐effective dementia diagnostics

Decades of progress in oncology have demonstrated that early detection through scalable screening and liquid biopsies can transform fatal diseases into manageable conditions. As Alzheimer's disease (AD) enters the era of disease‐modifying therapies, there is an urgent need to transition from invasive, high‐cost “gold‐standard” diagnostics toward accessible, population‐level tools. This paper proposes that oncology's early‐detection revolution provides a strategic template for AD by exploring the shift from specialist‐dependent procedures to scalable, minimally invasive alternatives, the move toward multimodal risk stratification, and the application of tiered triage systems to manage finite healthcare resources. While oncology warns of overdiagnosis and the necessity of robust health economic evidence, AD offers unique opportunities for preventive intervention during its extended preclinical window. A three‐tiered framework integrating digital assessments and biofluid biomarkers is proposed to ensure equitable, efficient, and sustainable diagnostic pathways. Highlights This paper draws explicit parallels between oncology screening and emerging BBMs for AD. It argues for a tiered, risk‐stratified diagnostic pathway using BBMs in primary care and reserving CSF/PET for high‐yield cases. It emphasizes the need for rigorous health‐economic evaluation, including cost‐effectiveness, budget impact, and equity. It identifies key risks from oncology experience, including overdiagnosis, false positives, and implementation challenges. Finally, it outlines strategic priorities for assay standardization, real‐world pilots, and AI‐enabled, multimodal longitudinal care.