I3LUNG was featured at the ESMO – European Society for Medical Oncology, held from September 13 to 17 in Barcelona.
The poster titled: “Digital pathology predicts PD-L1 expression in metastatic NSCLC patients treated with immunotherapy” was presented by our PI, Dr. ArselaPrelaj, on September 14th at 11 AM. Additionally, the poster was available for viewing throughout the day, from 9 AM to 5 AM.
We invite you to watch the video shares more details about our project.
Last Thursday, 12th of September, MEDSIR organized an insightful event titled “10 Years from Now – The Future of Breast and Lung Cancer: Reflections After a Decade of Research.” Experts from diverse fields gathered to share their perspectives on the advancements in cancer research and treatment.
Alfonso Aguarón from Lung Cancer Europe provided valuable insights from a patient’s point of view, while Dr. Arsela Prelaj from Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori di Milano discussed the application of artificial intelligence (AI) in medicine, specifically in the I3LUNG project.
The event also featured leading oncology experts such as Dr. Antonio Llombart Cussac, Senior Scientific Lead at MEDSIR, Maria Jose Martinez Serrano, Medical Head of Solid Tumors at Novartis España, and Pilar Fernández Pascual, President of the Asociación Española Cáncer de Mama Metastásico. Together, they offered a 360º view on the present and future of cancer research and treatment.
Another day, another partner going all out.
Massimo Broggini, Head Department of Experimental Oncology, from Istituto Mario Negri participated in the internal seminar on artificial intelligence (AI) titled “L’intelligenza artificiale nella ricerca clinica e pre-clinica,” held in Milan on September 4th.
During the event, advances in the use of AI in clinical and preclinical research were discussed. In the segment “Le esperienze nell’uso dell’Intelligenza artificiale presso il Mario Negri,” Dr. Broggini presented the I3LUNG project, which focuses on applying artificial intelligence to improve the treatment and management of lung cancer.
Thank you, Massimo and the Istituto Mario Negri, for your role in the I3LUNG project.
On June 21st and 22nd 2024, under the warm hospitality of the partner Metropolitan Hospital (MH), we celebrated the third Annual Meeting of the I3LUNG project on the beautiful island of Spetses, Greece. This event brought together the 15 partners who shared their progress in this exciting stage of research.
The event began on the afternoon of Friday, the 21st, following an enriching scientific workshop attended by several of our partners. Helena Linardou (from MH), warmly welcomed us, followed by the inspiring words of Arsela Prelaj from Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori di Milano PI of the I3LUNG.
After few presentations, we enjoyed a delicious Greek snack during the break, a moment we used to reconnect with our colleagues, whom we hadn’t seen since the last Annual Meeting in Barcelona in 2023. We also took advantage of the breaks to conduct some interviews, capturing valuable insights from our partners.
After a short break, we returned full of energy for the discussions that followed. The end of Friday’s agenda had to be postponed to Saturday because we ran out of time to continue.
The day ended with a dinner in an authentic Greek restaurant, where we celebrated the two years of the I3LUNG project with a delicious cake, music, and lots of fun.
On Saturday, the 22nd, we kicked off the meeting at 9:30 AM, continuing with discussions and presentations. We had the honor of hearing Mireia Crispin Ortuzar, Assistant Professor in Cambridge & Chief Digital Officer in 52 North, who provided valuable insights on multimodal integration intointo the project.
Finally, after an intense morning of work, we concluded the Annual Meeting at 2 PM, preparing for a boat excursion around different spots on the island. Could we have ended the meeting on a better note? We don’t think so!
We said goodbye to this wonderful gathering, looking forward to the next one, which will be… Can you guess where? We are excited to see each other faces again soon!
Stay tuned for all the I3LUNG updates on our social media channels and do not hesitate to contact us for more information.
Francesco Trovò from Politecnico di Milano participated in the L’intelligenza artificiale in Sanità event organized by the Università di Siena, where he shared significant advancements of the I3LUNG project.
In his presentation titled “AI in Oncology: Insights and Guidelines from Real Case Studies“, Francesco had the opportunity to showcase how artificial intelligence is transforming the field of oncology.
During his talk he highlighted the impact of I3LUNG on oncological research and how emerging technologies are optimizing treatments and improving outcomes for patients. The presentation provided valuable insights into the practical applications of AI in oncology, supported by real-life cases demonstrating the effectiveness of these innovations.
The Scientific Forum of Romanian Young Oncologists was the stage for a notable presentation by Vanja Mišković from Politecnico di Milano. In the Onco-Innovation section, Mišković presented the I3LUNG project, focusing on the use of machine learning frameworks to improve treatment selection in lung cancer.
In her talk titled “I3LUNG: A Machine Learning Framework to Improve Treatment Selection in Lung Cancer”, Vanja shared valuable insights on how artificial intelligence is transforming the way treatments are chosen for lung cancer patients. Her presentation highlighted how the machine learning framework developed in the I3LUNG project is advancing therapy personalization and optimizing clinical outcomes.
Vanja Mišković’s participation in this forum not only underscores the impact of the I3LUNG project on oncological research but also the growing influence of emerging technologies in the field of oncology. We congratulate Vanja for her excellent work and contribution to the scientific community.
Arsela Prelaj, PI of the I3LUNG project from Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori di Milano, presented our project at the prestigious European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) conference, held in Berlin from May 15-17.
During her presentation titled “The Growing Role of Artificial Intelligence in Breast Cancer”, Arsela highlighted the advances and potential of AI in the fight against breast cancer, emphasizing its transformative impact on the field of oncology.
Lung cancer is known for its aggressiveness. In recent years, new hopes have arisen for patients with the advent of immunotherapy, a new treatment approach consisting in stimulating the patient’s own immune system. In lung cancer, this passes through the administration of specific drugs targeting immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI). ICIs stop the interactions between cancer cells and specific proteins present in immune cells that prevent the latter from recognizing the cancer cells as harmful – the idea is to switch the immune system “back on”, help it identify cancerous cells and in turn fight them more effectively.
The idea came about after 2018, when James Allison, head of the department of immunology at the Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, and Tasuku Honjo, head of the department of immunology and genomic medicine at Kyoto University, were awarded the Nobel Prize for discoveries that paved the way for immunotherapy to fight advanced cancer.
Lung cancer (and in particular non-small cell lung cancer – NSCLC) immunotherapy has had success mainly through the two ICIs that are PD-1 and PDL-1 inhibitors, but it is important to note that (1) their efficacy could be better (2) not all patients respond equally to the treatment, for reasons still not well clarified. These are the core unmet needs that the I3LUNG project, and INT as a participating center, want to respond to provide an answer to. Specifically, by creating a dataset made up of different biomarkers (a meta-biomarker) that when put together can accurately predict a patient’s response to immunotherapy. These markers will be identified by looking at the results of the clinical studies conducted within the broader I3LUNG research project, whose data we will analyze with the help of Artificial Intelligence models designed ad hoc for this task.
In the first year of the project, aside from coordinating the project the Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori di Milano (INT) has been active in steering the design and creation of an original and unique electronic database to input and analyze clinical, epidemiological, molecular and radiological data at multiple levels, that has been populated with the data from over 1500 (so far) NSCLC patients collected by the clinical partners of the project. In parallel to the collection of retrospective data, the INT has designed and kick-started a prospective study enrolling 200 patients from five cancer centers, whose data will be collected and analyzed according to the AI methodologies we will implement from the autumn of 2023 onwards. The institute will be responsible for a set of clinical and biological analyses as well, in particular the analysis of patients’ microbiota and microRNA.
This project is already having a positive impact at a larger level at the Institute, with the constitution of a multidisciplinary team comprising physicians, bioengineers, nurses, biologists, data managers, pharmacists and project managers. This has been especially useful to create links, integrate the different skills and coordinate the progress of the project in the best possible way. A strong interaction is also being built with other related projects, such as the Apollo 11 network, 40+ Italian cancer centers that will share data through harmonized AI procedures, and share samples through an innovative “virtual biobank” design.
Spurred by this project, the idea of INT setting up Italy’s first Artificial Intelligence in Oncology Laboratory has emerged. It will be concretized with its creation in 2023 in the Institute’s Cascina Rosa Campus, already home to the its Data Science department.
Article written by the Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori di Milano (INT). For more information, please visit the Project section in our website or contact us.
On June 30th and July 1st, this year’s I3LUNG Annual Meeting took place at the MEDSIR offices in Barcelona, Spain. The venue offered stunning 360º views of the city. As we did last year, the meeting brought together the 16 partners of the project to share the progress achieved over the past year.
The event kicked off on Friday morning with a workshop in collaboration with Lung Cancer Europe focused on ‘Knowledge on Artificial Intelligence applied to treatment decision-making‘. This workshop was attended by 6 people in person and one attendee remotely, including lung cancer patients and patient advocates.
AnteriorAfter the workshop, we enjoyed lunch on the 27th floor in the Open Space of MEDSIR offices. It provided a great opportunity for the workshop participants and the I3LUNG consortium to mingle, chat and have a wonderful time all together. In addition, a photographer took pictures of those who posed in front of the specially designed photocall for the event.
Following the lunch, the Annual Meeting began with a warm welcome from Susana Vitorino, MEDSIR Trial & Client Manager, followed by Arsela Prelaj, PI of the I3LUNG, along with Laura Mazzeo, from the Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori di Milano (INT). The agenda for the first day was divided into six parts:
During the breaks on the first day, we conducted interviews with speakers from each institution, asking them two questions about the project. These interviews are intended to be published on the website, keep tuned!
We ended the first day presentations with a guest, Dr. Denis Horgan, who gave a talk about “Innovation and incentives: power for civilization to tackle lung cancer –and for better healthcare for ALL”. It was a pleasure to have him with us!
To conclude the day, we gathered at the Barcelona Milano restaurant and we enjoyed ourselves.
The second day began at 9 a.m. with an agenda divided into seven parts:
And we concluded the event with a small snack, providing an opportunity to bid farewell to the attendees.
Looking forward to next year’s Annual Meeting in Greece to analyse the progression made. Feel free to reach out to the people involved to know better about the I3LUNG!
The Integrative science, Intelligent data platform for Individualized LUNG cancer care with Immunotherapy (I3LUNG) consortium, funded by Horizon Europe, is leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) methods to develop a clinical decision-making tool for personalized lung cancer care. The goal is to improve the matching of metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (mNSCLC) patients with the most suitable immunotherapy (IO) or non-IO treatments. This can potentially revolutionize care by improving treatment outcomes, reducing unnecessary costs, and ensuring that patients most unlikely to benefit from IO therapy are provided more appropriate treatments alternatives and are spared the risk of serious IO-related adverse events like hyperprogression.
The Swedish Institute for Health Economics continues to develop the economic models that will be used support economic analysis of the I3LUNG AI platform from the many perspectives used in participating countries including stakeholders in the EU member states, the US, and Israel.
The conceptualization and programming of a budget impact model has been successfully completed. This model will play a vital role in informing stakeholders about the short-term budgetary implications and any budget reallocations that may be required in conjunction with adoption of the I3LUNG tool. The model incorporates intentional flexibility to consider the diverse perspectives of stakeholders in different settings. Our next step is to incorporate the results of the I3LUNG study when they become available and then to utilize the model empirically.
A key milestone in the development of our model involved performing a systematic literature review (SLR) of published budget impact models of lung cancer. The review identified 21 models. Findings from the SLR were presented at the Swedish Health Economics Association (SHEA) annual meeting held at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden on April 25, 2023. The number of identified models exceeded our initial expectations, and the time trend is positive, indicating a growing interest in this area of research. Of particular relevance for the assessment of the I3Lung AI tool, a large number of models evaluated IO therapies. While none of the identified models met our specific needs, some of them offered valuable features that have greatly contributed to the conceptualization and development of our budget impact model. Currently, a manuscript for peer-reviewed publication is under preparation.
In addition to the budget impact model, the Swedish Institute for Health Economics is also developing a cost-effectiveness model, which will be capable both of assessing the “value for money” associated with adopting the I3LUNG AI platform across participating countries and of optimizing the economic efficiency of the tool. We are in the final stages of conducting an SLR of published cost-effectiveness models of lung cancer and have identified nearly 200 relevant models. The findings from this review, which will be reported in the fall, will provide valuable insights into conceptualization of the cost-effectiveness model.
#I3LUNG #IHESweden #BIM #HorizonEurope
Article written by IHE – The Swedish Institute for Health Economics. For more information, please visit the Project section in our website or contact us.