I Got Cancer, my Doctors Gave up on my Quality of Life—I Built an AI-app to Help Myself and Others

I never thought my proficiency in Bioinformatics, AI and Data Science would become my own shield, my own lifeline. A single diagnosis changed everything.

I was working as a bioinformatics and data science researcher trying to unfold the etiology of complex terminal diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s disease -until cancer decided to make me its next experiment.

Being diagnosed with Stage 3 rectal cancer was devastating but I braced myself and fought bravely thinking that if i get through the hardest part (the chemotherapies, radiations and surgeries), I will be great again. i was wrong. Cancer didn’t break me, LARS does, daily!

For those that never heard of it ( and honestly, doctors are barely talking about it as much), Lower Anterior Resection Syndrome (LARS) is what happens after rectal surgery. it is life altering and destroys your ability to control your bowel movements.

imagine rushing to the bathroom 30 times a day, or not being able to go at all, unpredictable accidents that don’t let you leave the house, continuous pain in the abdomen, ultimate discomfort due to bloating, burning and pain. Doctors saved my life but could do nothing to restore my life. They asked me to go through another surgery and get an ostomy bag for life. The struggles don’t end here. when you can’t go out, you can’t work unless you have a remote role. Adding to this, what if you have student loans and need a sponsorship to land a job? Who do you go to for your survival needs?

Then I decided!

IF NO ONE ELSE BUILDS A SOLUTION, I WILL-not for myself alone but for all like me.

I had spent years working with machine learning models, bioinformatics data analysis and data science. I had built systems that could predict disease patterns, analyze genetic interactions, and optimize treatments. Why couldn’t I use the same approach to fix my own health?

So I started digging.

I scraped research papers, patient discussions, and consortiums for multi-omics datasets. I experimented with gut microbiome analysis, symptom tracking, and diet modifications. And most importantly, I started designing an AI-powered platform that could take all this data and turn it into real, actionable health insights.

That’s how SANJEEVANI AI was born—an AI-driven platform designed to help cancer survivors regain control over their health through personalized, data-backed recommendations.

I didn’t want to build just another symptom tracker or a generic chatbot. Survivors like me needed something smarter—something that could think, learn, and adapt. So I built SANJEEVANI AI using some of the most exciting advancements in AI and data science:

SANJEEVANI AI uses RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation), it combines an LLM with real-time medical knowledge retrieval. This allows it to:

• Pull the latest, research-backed health insights instead of hallucinating.
• Personalize answers based on individual symptoms and user history.
• Improve with each interaction, learning from survivor-reported experiences.
• Instead of forcing users to log symptoms manually, SANJEEVANI AI uses NLP (Natural Language Processing) to extract and analyze symptoms from conversations.
• The AI detects emotional distress (because mental health is as crucial as physical health).
• It then adjusts recommendations dynamically, like a real assistant—not just a static app.

Research shows that gut health is deeply connected to post-cancer recovery.

• SANJEEVANI AI uses multi-omics data (metagenomics + single-cell RNA-seq) to recommend dietary interventions tailored to each user’s microbiome.
• It tracks gut health over time, suggesting probiotics, prebiotics, and diet changes to optimize digestion and symptom management.

Of course, it wasn’t all smooth sailing. Building AI for survivorship care comes with a ton of challenges like:

• Handling sensitive health data means strict encryption and compliance with HIPAA.
• Most AI healthcare models are trained on clinical trial data, which often excludes real-world patients.
• People don’t trust AI if they don’t understand it—so every SANJEEVANI AI recommendation comes with a clear, data-backed explanation.

Despite the challenges, I knew this was too important to give up on.

What I Learned Along the Way

AI is powerful—but human experience is irreplaceable. Survivorship care isn’t just about crunching numbers. It’s about understanding what people actually go through. No dataset could’ve prepared me for what living with LARS was really like. My own experience shaped SANJEEVANI AI.

Personalized healthcare is the future. Generic medical advice doesn’t cut it anymore. The more we integrate AI, microbiome research, and real-world patient data, the closer we get to truly personalized medicine.

🛠 If the solution doesn’t exist, build it yourself. The medical system wasn’t going to solve this problem for me. AI gave me the tools to take control of my own recovery—and now, it’s helping others do the same.

I built SANJEEVANI AI because I refused to believe that cancer survivors had to just “deal with it.” No one should have to navigate post-cancer life alone.

If you’re a cancer survivor, AI researcher, or health-tech enthusiast—I’d love to connect.

Because survivorship is not just about living—it’s about living well.