From March 26 to 29, the European Lung Cancer Congress brought together international leaders in thoracic oncology, and we are proud to share that Dr. Arsela Prelaj, Principal Investigator of the I3LUNG Project, was one of the featured speakers and also served as chair of the session “The role of AI in lung cancer”, alongside Andreas Rimner.
In this educational session, Arsela presented her talk on the use of Artificial Intelligence in treatment response assessment, a key topic in advancing personalized and more effective medicine for lung cancer patients.
We also want to thank the other speakers of the session: Jakob Nikolas Kather (AI in lung cancer pathology), Florian J. Fintelmann MD (AI in lung cancer imaging), and Joseph (Joe) Deasy (AI in radiation treatment planning) for sharing their knowledge and expertise.
This WorldHealthDay, we join the World Health Organization in its initiative, “Healthy Beginnings, Hopeful futures“, which highlights the importance of ensuring a healthy start in life. But health matters at every stage not just in the early years. Early detection and access to innovative treatments can make all the difference.
At I3LUNG, we use the power of artificial intelligence to detect lung cancer in its earliest stages, giving patients the chance for a healthy beginning on their journey to recovery. But health is not just about the present. It’s about building hopeful futures, where technology and science come together to provide personalized treatments.
We’re excited to share that some of our I3LUNG partners, Arsela Prelaj, Helena Linardou, Giovanni Scoazec and Vanja Mišković, have founded the European Interdisciplinary Society of AI for Cancer Research! 🎉
This initiative is set to transform the way AI is integrated into oncology by:
🔹 Driving multidisciplinary collaborations
🔹 Developing AI education & literacy programs
🔹 Supporting innovative research
🔹 Connecting key players: policymakers, patients, academia & industry
We share this vision of AI-powered cancer research, and we couldn’t be prouder to see our partners leading the way! 🤩
Stay tuned for more updates, and be sure to follow European Interdisciplinary Society of AI for Cancer Research to be part of this journey.
On February 10th, Alessandra Pedrocchi from Politecnico di Milano represented the I3LUNG project at Canova Club, exploring the role of artificial intelligence in healthcare from key perspective: ethics and inclusion.
Thank you, Alessandra 💪🏼
On February 4th, 2025—World Cancer Day—the European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA) hosted a landmark event in Brussels, bringing together key stakeholders from EU-funded cancer initiatives. The event focused on the synergies and impact of projects funded through EU4Health, Horizon Europe, and Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan. Among the invited experts was Vanja Miskovic, AI expert from Politecnico di Milano and Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, partner of the I3LUNG project, who contributed to the panel discussion on “From Diagnosis to Treatment – Best Practices and New Frontiers”, highlighting I3LUNG’s role in advancing AI-driven personalized lung cancer treatment and its broader implications for oncology care partners of the I3LUNG project, who contributed to the panel discussion on “From Diagnosis to Treatment – Best Practices and New Frontiers”, highlighting I3LUNG’s role in advancing AI-driven personalized lung cancer treatment and its broader implications for oncology care.
Moderator: It’s a great pleasure for me, to discuss with Vanja about the possibility of personalized lung cancer treatments, using AI and this software you are developing. Could you tell us more about it, how we can support each other and when we can see your solution in clinical practice?
Vanja Miskovic: I will try to explain to you what we are doing right now in our research: when a patient goes to the medical oncologist, and the medical oncologist needs to give him/her a treatment plan, he’s dealing with an oncologist with lots of information. He needs to process all this information as fast as possible, so what we are trying to do is to help the medical oncologist to do this by using the tool we are developing: a decision supporting system tool that will use all this information available in the clinical practice, starting from CT scans, PET scans, genomic, clinical and demographic information, blood results, all the things that are available, and we are trying to put them together, using our multimodal tool.
We are trying to fasten the decision-making process by the oncologist by developing our tool, and right now we are focusing on lung cancer specifically, but this methodology and this approach is scalable also to all the other cancers.
Let me give you a specific example on lung cancer and how this work in practice, because this is a poor prognosis cancer, usually diagnosed very late, and we are specifically dealing with advanced metastatic non-small cell lung cancer. There is a therapy that in the recent 10 years the treatment is starting to change for these patients. However, not all these patients respond to this treatment called immunotherapy. Currently, there is not a reliable biomarker to say which patient will respond to therapy and which won’t. And this is a specific problem in our project that we are trying to deal with, so we are trying to personalize the treatment for the patients and use all this data that is available to conclude which patient will be the ones responding to the treatment. By doing this, we are trying to improve the efficacy of the treatment and reduce unnecessary toxicities that can be caused by it.
Moderator: How can the outcomes of the I3LUNG project be applied in real-world clinical practice after the project ends? Would you also like to validate your software through the network?
Vanja Miskovic: Our project’s strength lies in collaboration. AI in oncology is evolving rapidly, and interdisciplinary cooperation is essential. By sharing best practices with other initiatives—especially those focusing on data harmonization—we ensure that our models are clinically relevant and widely applicable. We really want to implement the tool in a clinical setting, because this is not enough, we need to validate the tool across more data that is coming from different demographic populations and locations.
Moderator: If we have collaboration with practitioners, academia, researchers, but also industry, patients and also policy makers, it would be an important solution for our action. So about your partnership, do you have a patient organization already involved in your project? Interaction with industry?
Vanja Miskovic: I’m very proud to say that we have a patient advocacy group, as a member of our Consortium, called LUCE. We also have psychologist representatives, legal department in charge of ethical regulations. Multidisciplinary team is something very emphasized in the I3LUNG. Also between us, me coming from a technical field, and our PI (Arsela Prelaj) that is coming from a medical field, together we started our research lab in Milano that is actually joint between our 2 institutions, and I think this is truly important because through this lab we have contact with each other in person, on a daily basis. Before making big decisions, we discuss all of it and clear how we want to continue the implementation and development of our tool. It takes a lot of time to handle multidisciplinary teams, but it is something truly important to make the project work.
Moderator: What role do clinical guidelines play in ensuring AI adoption?
Vanja Miskovic: It’s not just about building models—it’s about making sure they are validated, standardized, and incorporated into everyday clinical workflows. For that, we need close collaboration with regulatory bodies, professional societies, and oncologists on the ground. Differences in healthcare maturity across Europe present a challenge, with some countries leading in AI adoption while others are still developing the necessary digital frameworks. I3LUNG actively engages with partners across diverse healthcare settings to create flexible, adaptable solutions that can be tailored to different regional needs.
The HaDEA event emphasized that Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan and the EU’s Cancer Mission must work hand in hand to foster innovation while ensuring equal access to high-quality cancer care. Vanja’s participation in this panel reinforced the importance of synergy between research initiatives, showcasing how I3LUNG exemplifies the EU’s vision of a more interconnected and patient-centric oncology ecosystem.
By leveraging AI to enhance personalization, bridging the gap between research and clinical application, and promoting cross-project collaboration, I3LUNG is contributing to a future where cancer treatment is not only more effective but also more equitable. As discussions at the HaDEA event made clear, the next steps will involve translating these advancements into sustainable healthcare policies, ensuring that AI-driven precision medicine becomes a standard part of oncology care across Europe.
With this engagement, I3LUNG has taken another step forward in shaping the future of lung cancer treatment, reinforcing the EU’s commitment to research-driven, patient-focused innovation in cancer care.
Watch the World Cancer Day 2025: #HaDEA Project Showcase here (jump to minute 2:55:10 for I3LUNG topic).
Lungs don’t speak, but they tell a story.
Every breath holds a secret of resilience, of science pushing forward, of lives changed by innovation. At I3LUNG, we’re working to unlock that story with AI, data and transform care for those who need it most.
On World Cancer Day, let’s rethink how we listen. Let’s challenge how we act. Because the future of lung cancer care isn’t just about treatments, it’s about understanding.
On January 31st and February 1st, Dr. Arsela Prelaj, (PI) of the I3LUNG project, took the conversation to the next level at the III International Thoracic Cancer Debates. As a speaker in the session Artificial Intelligence in LC from research to clinic: How and When?, she turned the usual question of “when” AI will reach the clinic into “how” we can already use it to transform patient care today.
This event was more than just an exchange of knowledge; it was an opportunity to rewrite the rules of thoracic oncology. AI is not just data and algorithms; it’s the tool that brings us closer to more precise, human, and effective treatment.
As part of the I3LUNG project, we highlight the inspiring presentation by Yvonne Díaz, patient advocate and member of Lung Cancer Europe (LuCE), at the Upsmart conference in Manchester, UK, in November 2024.
In her talk, Yvonne addressed the hopes and concerns of patients regarding the use of technologies such as artificial intelligence, wearables, and other innovations in oncological research.
How can we ensure that patients remain at the center of this new digital world?
A valuable reflection on how technology can transform medical research while keeping the perspectives of those who matter most: the patients.
Discover her perspective here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YwAnCdl4eA
The Hackathon had the objective of setting up collaborative groups, having them come up with innovative, AI-driven approaches to combat cancer – inspired by real-world cases of AI deployments in cancer practice. The I3LUNG project PI, Arsela Prelaj was one of the faculty members, with colleagues from Politecnico di Milano.
The I3LUNG project and the Metropolitan Hospital have been awarded the Gold Prize at the prestigious Healthcare Business Awards, recognizing their outstanding contribution to oncology research.
Gold Prize: Metropolitan Hospital for their exceptional work on the I3LUNG project.
Silver Prize: Hellenic Foundation for Cancer Research for the HERCARE initiative, focused on eliminating hereditary cancer risks.
We also celebrate the achievements of our partners at ΕΟΠΕ – HeSMO:
Gold: Biomarkers Consensus.
Bronze: National Cancer Awareness Campaign.
Congratulations to everyone involved!
