The vision of ITFoC is a radical new approach to a true personalisation of drug therapy in many areas of medicine and prevention, and its demonstration in breast cancer.

Deep analysis

Based on a deep molecular characterisation of individual tumours and patients

Digital medicine

Establishment and use of digital medicine approaches to model effects and side effects of all therapy options

Multi-stakeholders

Transformation in current health care practice across Europe, necessitating engagement of all stakeholders

Virtual patient modelling in oncology

ITFoC will establish a standardised and well-validated approach for virtual patient modelling in oncology, through comparative analysis of computational model approaches for predicting patient response to treatment based on molecular data (e.g. exome/transcriptome/metabolome) from individual patients and tumours. Existing and newly generated large scale molecular and clinical datasets on (triple negative) breast cancer patients from across Europe, as well as ongoing data standard initiatives, will be leveraged to provide standardised and validated datasets, accessible via a common database.

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Specific objectives of the ITFoC project

To establish a data portal for shared access

To establish a data portal for shared access to standardised omics and clinical outcome datasets. This portal will provide a foundation for predictive modelling of drug response in breast cancer patients.

To optimize and validate modelling predictions

To optimize and validate modelling predictions within preclinical models and patient cohorts. Preclinical and clinical validation is a prerequisite for validating computational modelling approaches. New patient cohorts will be selected with the criterion of maximizing the new information content for the virtual patient predictor. Accordingly, we will focus on triple-negative breast cancer tumors that are expected to provide a high rate of recurrence/metastasis within the time frame of the project.

To establish a strong and integrated ITFoC community

To establish a strong and integrated ITFoC community to pursue common goals. A federated community with common goals and motivations provides a conduit for change in current pratices.

Collaborative ties with relevant scientists, clinicians, interested individuals as well as existing initiatives can be established and bolstered to define the roadmap towards implementation of optimal digital medicine driven cancer care in European healthcare systems.

To propose policy and guidelines

To propose policy and guidelines. Development of new policy and guidelines in collaboration with ongoing, aligned initiatives provides the capacity to incorporate issues specific to digital medicine in cancer and medicine in general.

To compare different existing modelling approaches

To compare different existing modelling approaches and to develop an optimized computational modelling approach for predicting patient outcomes in breast cancer. This computational modelling approach will initially rely on existing models and will grow by the inclusion of both existing and new data in the prediction algorithms.

To compare the accuracy of predictive models

To compare the accuracy of predictive modelling approaches, generating indicators of reliability, for the different approaches compared to standard treatment. The project duration is sufficient to permit monitoring the outcome for a statistically significant number of patients for which a complete prediction based on the virtual patient model was obtained and therefore to quantify the prediction reliability. Predictive modelling approaches are compared with current treatment gold standards.

To investigate the relevant ethical hurdles

To investigate the relevant ethical, legal and financial hurdles for implementation of digital medicine in cancer. The relevant, ethical, legal and financial issues for implementing digital medicine approaches are prerequisite for changing health care practices, knowledge of existing regulation and issues as well as identification of gaps in policies provides the only way forward to implement digital medicine in cancer within healthcare systems.

To prepare a scale-up phase after project end

To prepare a scale-up phase after project end. Ensuring the sustainability of the ITFoC concept and a validated digital medicine approach. All partners are able to participate in preparing the scale-up phase and to recruit additional partners from their scientific communities.

Find out more about IT Future of Cancer Treatment

ITFoC Consortium: 17 partners from 6 European countries

Over the last decades we have made major progress in diagnosing and treating cancer, however, these diseases remain one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide, responsible for millions of death each year. A ‘moonshot to cure cancer’ is being called for which could translate this enormous progress into tangible outcomes for patients. To be able to provide ‘the right drug for every patient’, we propose here to develop demonstrators, based on a deep molecular characterisation of tumour and patient as input to virtual patient models on the individual patient in silico. ITFoC Consortium include a number of 17 partners from 6 European countries. See below.